Sheikh Mo and Bernardini

[Betsy]

I would never wish ill-will on the Sheikh, but he can no longer claim to be a sportsman and his decision stinks. The horse, to this point, is sound - he is potentially a great horse (I think we'll see his best effort in the Classic) and he could do wonderful things next year. Regardless of the split fandom on message boards, Bernardini is clearly very popular with fans at the track -he's very charismatic in addition to talented. It would have been wonderful to see just how good this colt could be; now it's another in a long line of "what might have beens". Obviously I don't doubt Bernardini like most of the people on this board, but I'm as angry or even angrier and I'm not going to enjoy the run up to the BC because all I can think of his a horse unnecessarily being retired before he even hits his peak. I just hope that there are a ton of editorials taking the Sheikh to task for his decision; obviously it won't change his mind, but at least John Ferguson, etc......will know just how angry people are.