Schettino, Rosenthal have four Berning Rose offspring training at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Four horses out of the same mare are in training and will potentially race this summer at Saratoga. Call them the “Bernie Bunch.”

Bernietakescharge, Bernieandtherose, Roseberns Dream, and Bank On Harvey are all out of the dam Berning Rose. Three of them are already winners and the fourth, the 2-year-old Bank On Harvey, is training toward a start hopefully later this meet.

The quartet are trained by Dominick Schettino and owned and bred by Robert Rosenthal and his brother-in-law Bradford Bernstein. The first foal produced by Berning Rose was a winner and has subsequently been retired.

“To have four of them from the same family training at Saratoga has got to be something unique,” said Rosenthal, who has been breeding and racing horses in New York for at least three decades.

This story began in August 2017 when Berning Rose, a daughter of Freud, won a maiden race at Saratoga by five lengths. Two starts later, she won the Maid of the Mist Stakes at Belmont Park. Unfortunately, Berning Rose got hurt in training a few weeks after the Maid of the Mist and despite Rosenthal’s best efforts to get her back to the races, Berning Rose had to be retired.

“When Berning Rose won her first race at Saratoga she won decisively, we knew we had a good horse,” Rosenthal said. “As a matter of fact, some Middle Eastern folks came by thinking about buying her. I don’t do that. I enjoy breeding and then racing.”

Rosenthal first bred Berning Rose to Honor Code. The resulting foal was Berning Honor who, from 10 starts, could only muster a win for maiden $40,000 claiming at Aqueduct in November 2023. She got hurt in her next race and was retired. Berning Honor recently produced her first foal, a colt by Solomini.

Rosenthal then bred Berning Rose to Take Charge Indy. The result was Bernietakescharge, who has become the all-star of the family. Bernietakescharge has won eight of 23 starts, including four stakes. Last month, the now 5-year-old mare repeated in the $200,000 Critical Eye for New York-breds. She has banked $739,930.

“That’s not an easy task and she did it the hard way too,” Schettino said. “Every time you take her over there, she tries, and they press her out of the gate. She never gets a chance the first part of the race to have a little bit of a breather. Right out of the gate she always gets pressure on her but she responds to it.”

There are no New York-bred dirt stakes for older females until October. So Bernietakescharge either must run in open company or potentially try the turf. She has twice raced on grass without success. The statebred Yaddo Stakes will be run at 1 1/16 miles on turf Aug. 30.

The ultimate fall goal for Bernietakescharge is the $250,000 Empire Distaff on dirt at Belmont on Oct. 24.

Bernieandtherose, a daughter of Accelerate, was following in her big sister’s footsteps. After finishing third in her debut, Bernieandtherose won the last two races of her 2-year-old season and the first two of her 3-year-old season – the East View and Maddie May Stakes. Following a third-place finish in the Bouwerie 13 months ago, Bernieandtherose developed bone bruising and was off for the rest of the year.

Schettino brought Bernieandtherose back to the races in an open-company allowance in April but she got involved in a fast pace and retreated to sixth. Bernieandtherose is back in an open allowance going one mile on Friday at Saratoga.

“She was compromised by the [rail] post last time,” Schettino said. “We gave her a little time after that to let her get over that race and now she’s in on Friday. I’m expecting her to run well the way she’s training.”

Roseberns Dream, a daughter of Always Dreaming, became the most recent winner out of Berning Rose when she captured a statebred maiden $50,000 claiming race at Aqueduct on June 25. She finished last in an open $40,000 claimer at Saratoga on Sunday, but out of the race was found to have an electrolyte imbalance called thumps. Schettino said he is waiting on the results of some bloodwork before determining how to proceed.

In recent matings for Berning Rose, Rosenthal has used New York stallions. The first male horse of the family is a 2-year-old by Central Banker named Bank On Harvey, named for Rosenthal’s father-in-law, Harvey Bernstein, who died a couple of years ago.

“He really loved horses,” Rosenthal said. “He just liked to bet and follow them. He was a racing enthusiast.”

Schettino said the early indications are promising for Bank On Harvey.

“From the first breeze, a quarter of a mile, he showed me he can run, he’s got ability,” said Schettino, who hopes Bank On Harvey can race toward the end of the meet.

Beyond the four Berning Rose progeny currently in training, there are more in the pipeline. Rosenthal said there is an Americanrevolution yearling filly and a Twirling Candy weanling filly. Berning Rose is in foal to Constitution.

It looks like there could be many more seasons of the Bernie Bunch.