I’m still a little foggy aboutthe eligibility requirements for the Derby, but is West Side Bernie NOT a possibility , even though he had a close-up 2nd place finish to IWR.
I don’t recall seeing his name among Derby contenders lists anywhere lately. I guess he was never nominated/
Is it too late? And wonder what his Beyer number is, coming out of the Wood, because, trips notwithstanding , it is right behing IWR’s/
I thought yesterday,and still think now, he is first rate, and might indeed have won the race today had he not swung so wide in the stretch, or coming down the stretch. Yeah, I was watching the HorseRacing Channel, expecting to SEE the race there, and literally TWO minutes to post, as the horses were loading for the Illinois Derby, a notice flashed on the screen saying the Wood would not be shown in real time. So I frantically channel surfed thinking it would be of WW of sports, or ESPN,but found it on MSG network, just as they were starting to load. That isn’t the first time it’s happened. Big pain in the butt, the politics of horse racing.
Bernie is nominated to the TC and has plenty of Graded Stakes earnings. You probably haven’t heard about him much because his first two races this year were a bit disappointing. Clearly a better horse on dirt than synthetics. Beyers are a bit light. Fractions were similar to the Gotham, but I’ll guess they’ll get a Beyer somewhere in the high 90s.