Bernardini

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) - Bernardini has run his last race.

Two days after finishing second in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, the 3-year-old colt was retired Monday and will stand at stud at Sheik Mohammed's Darley farm.
Bernardini was the leading U.S. Horse of the year contender entering the Classic at Churchill Downs off six straight victories, including the Preakness Stakes, the Travers Stakes and the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Sent off as the even-money favorite in the Classic, Bernardini made a bold move around the turn to take the lead but was overtaken in the stretch by Invasor, who won by a length.

Bernardini is owned by Sheik Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai.

Darley, one of the world's largest breeding operations, said on its Web site that Bernardini's stud fee is $100,000.

Henny Hughes, owned by Sheik Mohammed's son, Sheik Rashid, also was retired to Darley on Monday. The 3-year-old colt finished last in the Breeders' Cup Sprint as the favorite. His stud fee is $40,000.

Bernardini, a son of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, won six of eight races and earned $3,060,480 in purses. Trained by Tom Albertrani, the colt remains a top candidate to be voted the U.S. 3-year-old male champion. A.P. Indy stands at Lane's End for $300,000.

Henny Hughes, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, won six of 10 races and earned $1,124,820 (?885,550). Among the wins were the King's Bishop and the Vosburgh.

"These are the supreme thoroughbreds of their generation and each bested older horses, too," said Dan Pride, Darley's chief operating officer. "They are well-bred and exceptionally attractive. They were not only brilliant but they came back for more time and again."

Invasor, meanwhile, is expected to race next year as a 5-year-old for his owner, Sheik Hamdan, the older brother of Sheik Mohammed.

Laura Smith · Post by **Laura Smith** » 17 years ago

Well, #*&%.

...
Not cool.

Unless he had some major issue that they're trying to hide, this is f'in ridiculous.
Same goes for Henny.

I'm getting sick of this crap...in the same vein, 6.1 MILLION for the unsound, barely raced Half Ours at KEENOV today, when multiple G1 winning mares, and dams of G1 winners, were RNA'ing for much much less.

Sooner or later, the expensive babies are going to go through the sales and go straight to stud, where their claims to fame will be their sales prices and fancy pedigrees.
I love the theory of breeding but it's tough to take this kind of stuff.
And the industry leaders wonder why the fan base is declining.

Ian Nicastrin · Post by **Ian Nicastrin** » 17 years ago

i agree

Peihe Sun · Post by **Peihe Sun** » 17 years ago

How disappointing. With another year of racing he might have been a major contender for the HOF. Bernardini's had less than a full year of racing.

The Henny Hughes s^(@#$ is just as bad also. Wait - so HOW many older horses did he really defeat again? I can sort of make a case for Bernardini's brilliancy and besting older horses (although the only one he did win, Wanderin Boy, Andromeda's Hero, and ill-fated Dylan Thomas can hardly be counted as competition), but Henny Hughes' been facing small fields year in year out.

ARGHHHH.

I'm about to rip my hair out.

On another hand, I can't wait for LAVA MAN's next race! How awesome is it that it seems the MAN is just as good -if not better- on turf as on dirt!

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 17 years ago

I don't like horse racing anymore

Nikki Everdeen · Post by **Nikki Everdeen** » 17 years ago

Wow...who bought Half Ours? Is he going to still run or be retired? The answer is probably right out in front of my face, but I'm in too much of a rush to catch a train to be able to look.

IsaP · Post by **IsaP** » 17 years ago

It makes sense to me.. these horses are worth a lot as far as stud services go and with the way last year went, they're probably hedging their bets rather than chance the horses breaking down.

Susie Rydell · Post by **Susie Rydell** » 17 years ago

To be fair, the Half Ours sale was to dissolve the partnership between his two former owners so his real price is actually 1/2 that.

Lauren Haggerty · Post by **Lauren Haggerty** » 17 years ago

While I understand it, I still don't like it. It's also one of the big criticisms of the sport: the horse get's a fan base, the public get's interested, and then he's retired at the age of 3. It's hard to keep getting dissapointed like that.

Ali Weasley · Post by **Ali Weasley** » 17 years ago

I'm not disappointed at all. I knew all along this would happen, so I never got my hopes up. It's the people like those who had Smarty Jones who promise us one thing and then take it back later on. Meanies.

Patten Fuqua · Post by **Patten Fuqua** » 17 years ago

I think I would have been disappointed had he won. Basically, without winning the Breeder's Cup, Bernardini is being retired and going down (until his offspring do something) as a horse that had big wins over short, mediocre fields.

I mean...who did he beat...? A confused Dylan Thomas? An injured Bluegrass Cat? Lava Man, Brother Derek, Lawyer Ron, Perfect Drift, George Washington (well...so did Premium Tap and Giacomo).

A horse isn't even truly at his racing peak until he is 4. Unless he is injured, there is no reason for him to be retired. The Sheikhs have absolutely no need for the money that he will earn as a sire.

Gabby O'Toole · Post by **Gabby O'Toole** » 17 years ago

To be fair, it wasn't Smarty's fault. He had imjuries that [revented him from racing, and would've put his career in danger had he run with them.

Daryl Dennis · Post by **Daryl Dennis** » 17 years ago

I find it VERY hard to discount Bernardini for winning over 3 mil in a year to go with his 5 Grade One wins. The small fields mean OTHER owners did the dodging. To me, that is a mark of respect. He entered the biggest races and the other big guns didn't come after him. Poor Bernardini was a monster on the track, and sadly his reputation seems to take a hit because his breakout race was the same where a fan-favorite got hurt.

Horse racing is a business, horse breeding is a far more lucrative business. While, I do wish the ultra-rich Sheikhs would put more of an eye on the racing end, I can't blame them for what they do with their own horses.

Easy way to solve the problem of being bummed out when a favorite brilliant horse retires early: Root for geldings.

Daryl

Martin Pennington · Post by **Martin Pennington** » 17 years ago

Each year the KY Derby is won by what people claim to be a super horse and then he's proven to be moderate at best over the next 18 months or so and is retired.

Monarchos, Giacomo, Funny Cide, War Emblem - all won the Derby and have looked pretty poor afterwards with an attrocious strike rate for supposed G1 performers. I know there are Giacomo fans on here but he seldom wins and was a shock winner at the Derby, it made sense to keep him in training as he wouldn't be worth all that much at stud - same with Monarchos and Funny Cide who's a gelding anyway.

Bernardini could run next year and get beat 3 or 4 times and his value would be 1/8th of what it is now. This way they can make shed loads of money from breeding fees, which lets face it is were the money's at and he retires with his reputation in tact.

In addition to this the only race for older horses on dirt the Sheikh really wants to win is the World Cup and he already has Discreet Cat (who's not proven himself fully on the track) for that.

Jolene Danner · Post by **Jolene Danner** » 17 years ago

Berni only won 3 G1's The Preakness, Travers and JCGC. The Whithers and Jim Dandy aren't G1.

(they might both be G2, i'm not sure what the Whithers is...)

Not suprised that he was retired, but still disappointed. Oh well. At least Invasor is still around.