Keeneland: Brilliant Berti leads DeVaux exacta in Bryan Station

Klein Racing’s homebred Brilliant Berti rallied from far back and held off long-shot stablemate Depiction by a neck to win the Grade 3, $591,625 Bryan Station Stakes for 3-year-olds at Keeneland, giving trainer Cherie DeVaux a closing-day exacta.

“He’s a horse that’s shown he has a lot of ability from the beginning,” DeVaux said. “He had a mild setback as a 2-year-old, so he ran his first race when he was 3, and it just was a learning experience. But from there it’s just been an upward trajectory for him.”

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Ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., Brilliant Bertie covered the one mile on the turf course labeled as firm in 1:34.40.

“He’s shown us all year long what a talented horse he is,” Hernandez said. “We’re just proud of him, especially for the Klein family. For them to keep breeding these good horses like they do, it’s a proud moment for them. The only time I got nervous today was when we were in the paddock, and Richard (Klein) told me, ‘We’ve won stakes at Keeneland before, but I’ve never gotten to come out in the infield for a winner-circle picture.’ So I hoping like, man, I hope we can get it done for him today.”

Brilliant Berti is a Kentucky-bred son of Noble Mission out of Langfuhr mare Believe in Bertie. He earned $344,100 for the victory to increase his career earnings to $1,601,285 with a record of 7: 5-1-0. His other stakes wins were in the listed American Derby and in the $1.5 million Gun Runner at Kentucky Downs. He also was second in the Secretariat (G2) at Colonial Downs.

Brilliant Berti paid $8.18, $5.36 and $3.30. Depiction, ridden by Florent Géroux, returned $26.38 and $11.20 and finished one length in front of third-place Herchee, who paid $5.04 under Édgar Morales.

Evade, Lagynos, favored Trikari, Neat, Demolisher, My Boy Prince, Call Protection and Mansa Musa completed the finish in that order.