Just give Bernardini HOY

[Buffymommy]

It was a very nice race and impressive. Not ready to give him HOY yet, maybe if he does the name in the Travers...

[miraja2]

It was a real good race. No question. The horses he beat weren't much, but he beat them so easily that I was impressed. But just give him HOY? I don't think so. The best horse he has beaten so far was a tired Sweetnorthernsaint. Buffy is right. If he strolls through the Travers like this, then I say let the HOY talk BEGIN. Before then....I say its premature.
My $ is still on Flower Alley.

Originally Posted by miraja2

It was a real good race. No question. The horses he beat weren't much, but he beat them so easily that I was impressed. But just give him HOY? I don't think so. The best horse he has beaten so far was a tired Sweetnorthernsaint. Buffy is right. If he strolls through the Travers like this, then I say let the HOY talk BEGIN. Before then....I say its premature.
My $ is still on Flower Alley.

Are there some mystery 3yr olds out there. Bluegrass Cat and Strong Contender are the only other decent three year olds that might show up and they are no better than Sunriver.

[Betsy]

Originally Posted by Danzig188

lol....

sure. of course had his time been a bit faster than hesanoldsalt rather than a bit slower, you'd have been posting that for all to see.

So is your point that Salt is better than Bernardini? The Jim Dandy was run on a sloppy track and the allowance was run on a good track, not to mention that Bernardini was never once asked for anything.

It's amazing that this horse went off at 3/5 with all the skeptics out there. Nothing this horse does is good enough. Every one of his wins has to have qualifiers attached to it - he beat tired horses, he loved the slop, he beat nothing. Why is it only Bernardini's races that are looked at under a microscope?

I'm sorry that there are those who simply can not concede that this is a very good horse without adding "but" to it.

[Danzig]

no betsy, i'm not saying that. what i wrote was that his time was comparable to an allowance race--that a horse supposedly on the cusp of hoy probably should have had a better time, not slower...

i said i don't know how many times now that i thought this horse ran a great race today. however, my point was that he isn't yet HOY worthy. i haven't attached any qualifiers to his race, i haven't said the comp was weak as others have, i haven't said one bad thing about the horse. if you want to read something that isn't between the lines, help yourself.

[Gander]

He looked awesome today and unfortunately the competiton in the Travers wont be much better than today, with the exception of Strong Contender. This horse is the goods, but lets not give him HOY off of this paid public workout. The other horses were an absolute utter mess today.

[sumitas]

it was a dog fight for 2nd with HK just getting nipped.

[GPK]

I mean honestly...I could beat Sunriver in the slop, and I am a HUGE Sunriver fan.

[skippy3481]

I'd bet the hell out of sunriver

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by boldruler

Are there some mystery 3yr olds out there. Bluegrass Cat and Strong Contender are the only other decent three year olds that might show up and they are no better than Sunriver.

Well first of all I think Bluegrass Cat is better than Sunriver. But in general you are correct in saying that there are no "mystery 3yo out there" and yes I fully expect Bern to win the Travers. All I am saying is that if he wins the Travers as impressively against Bluegrass Cat (or whoever emerges from the Haskell as a decent colt) I think HOY speculation would begin to be appropriate.
Listen there is nothing wrong with making predictions. If you think he is unbeatable, fine. I just don't think it is time yet to hand him HOY yet. The horse has won 2 real races in his life and they were against suspect competition. I will be the first to say that those two races were visually impressive, but let's remember Flower Alley.
He too won the Jim Dandy impressively (over 5 lengths) and went on to win the Travers by 2.5. He then finished a game 2nd to last year's HOY in the BCC, and won his only start this year. Do you really think it is IMPOSSIBLE that Flower Alley will beat Bernardini if and when those 2 square off? By saying "hand him horse of the year" you are saying that horses like Lava Man and Flower Alley have no shot at beating him. I'm just not ready to say that.