As a former assistant to four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, Cherie DeVaux saw Brown recording 1-2 finishes, sometimes even 1-2-3 finishes, in graded stakes races on turf.
Now DeVaux, enjoying her best year since beginning her training career in 2018, is getting in on the act. Her two trainees, Brilliant Berti and Depiction, went 1-2 in the 12-horse Bryan Station Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland Oct. 26.
While the strong finish from 3-1 shot Brilliant Berti was not a surprise to bettors, the runner-up performance from Depiction at 44-1 odds was. A $2 exacta between the two in the race for 3-year-olds returned $303.72
Both horses flew late in the $591,625 Bryan Station, slingshotting into the lane in a fast-paced mile race on turf in which My Boy Prince set furious fractions of :22.49, :44.95, and 1:09—a taxing pace that left him gassed in the final furlong. He weakened to ninth under Jose Ortiz.
Meanwhile, Brilliant Berti was ahead of just a couple of rivals with a quarter-mile to run, and Depiction was ahead of none. Their rallies, boosted by the hot pace, were on full display.
A homebred for Richard Klein's Klein Racing, Brilliant Berti struck the front late and outlasted Depiction for a neck victory, clocked in stakes-record 1:34.40 on firm turf. Brilliant Berti paid $8.18 for a $2 win wager.
He notched his fifth victory in seven starts in the Bryan Station. He is a three-time stakes winner.
"He's been a horse that's shown that he's had a lot of ability," DeVaux said. "From the beginning, we had a mild setback as a 2-year-old, and he ran his first races when he was 3, and just was a learning experience. And from there, it's really been upward trajectory for him."
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., expected to ride Pyrenees for DeVaux in the $7 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar Nov. 2, was aboard Brilliant Berti. He won his second Bryan Station after success in the 2021 race aboard the Kenny McPeek-trained Camp Hope.
Herchee ran third for trainer Helen Pitts, leaving female trainers with the top three in the Bryan Station.
Favored Trikari, who had defeated Brilliant Berti in the Secretariat Stakes (G2T) this summer, ran sixth for trainer Graham Motion.
The winner, bred in Kentucky, is out of the Langfuhr mare Believe in Bertie, who the Klein family also raced. They also owned Brilliant Berti's second, third, and fourth dams.
"I think the only time I got nervous today was when we were in the paddock, and Richard told me, he said, 'You know, we've won stakes at Keeneland before, but I've never gotten to come out to the infield for a winner's circle picture,'" Hernandez said of the area for graded stakes winners. "So I was like, man, hopefully we can get it done for him today."
Brilliant Berti is a son of the Galileo stallion Noble Mission, who previously stood at Lane's End in Kentucky before being sent to Japan in 2021.
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