Vic Zast

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In horse racing, as in the case of neighbors or commuters, it is rude to talk about the recently departed while the body is still warm.

But the memory of Barbaro might become a figment of illusionary history before Bernardini is done.

Bernardini captured the 43^rd running of the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes like a horse who will win the 137^th edition of the $1 million Travers, and if that comes to pass, he’s on a clear path to becoming Horse of the Year.

As a matter of fact, he might win the Travers in a walk-over. That’s how intimidating his performance in the prep was.

So much for the stricken Kentucky Derby winner — the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” winner of the Triple Crown. So much for the sport of racing being “star-challenged.” 

Bernardini may be a colt with the brilliance of Secretariat, although claiming that may sound sacrilegious. He is, at least, a decent cover of A.P. Indy, and that, in itself, is a load.

“I believe that this horse will continue to do well and he will get the recognition the second part of the season,” Bernardini’s trainer Tom Albertrani told the Daily Racing Form before the Jim Dandy.

“I’ve been saying all along how good this horse is,” the trainer said to reporters in the winner’s circle afterward. “If he stays at this level, he is going to be a very tough horse all year.”

As Barbaro convalesced in the critical care unit from broken bones and laminitis, Bernardini, his conqueror in the Preakness Stakes — that fateful race that unveiled one star at the expense of the other —was in the pink of good health romping home by nine lengths on a sloppy/sealed track at Saratoga. His record now stands at four for five, having won three stakes in a row, and the world awaits more to come from him.

Barbaro won six times from seven starts, including the Kentucky Derby, which Bernardini missed.  He was dominating in many of his triumphs, and, ironically, the one race he barely won — the Florida Derby in which he broke from the dreaded outside pole position at Gulfstream — might have been his most impressive.

There is no doubt that he’ll ever be forgotten. Because tragedy is able to provide a patina that no other drama can, Barbaro’s reputation as a legendary racehorse is set for the pantheon.

Nevertheless, records and reputations mean memories when horses win the way Bernardini won. In fact, even his time — a mediocre 1:50:50 for 1 1/8 miles — doesn’t speak to his overwhelming presence.  Picture this.

See Albertrani saddling the muscular son of the grade I winning mare Cara Rafeala in the open of Saratoga’s walking ring, with legions of onlookers and cameras clicking away at the tightening of the saddle cinch. Despite the intrusion, Bernardini stands calmly surveying the plat as if it was ground that the other horses in the race shouldn’t be standing on.

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