|
|
Summer Bird arrives at Oaklawn Park SUMMER BIRD (Birdstone), whose sophomore campaign was cut short by injury in Japan, arrived at Oaklawn Park this week and will begin the process of recuperation from surgery under the watchful eye of trainer Tim Ice over the next few months. Winner of the Belmont S. (G1), Travers S. (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) following his third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby (G2), the chestnut colt was sent to Hanshin Racecourse in Japan in hopes of establishing himself with an international reputation in the Japan Cup Dirt (Jpn-G1) to go along with his stateside success. Following a workout at Hanshin, X-rays showed that Summer Bird had suffered a fractured bone in his right foreleg. Surgery required one screw to fuse the cannon bone and it was the assessment following that surgery which allowed the connections of Summer Bird to go ahead and point for a four-year-old racing campaign. Owned by perennial Oaklawn leading owners, Drs. K.K. and Devi Jayaraman, Summer Bird is a front runner for an Eclipse Award as the top three-year-old colt. Those awards will be presented on January 18 in Beverly Hills, California. "If we had been told he'll only be around 80 percent of his former self, then we'd have probably thought about retiring him," Ice noted at his barn on Thursday morning. "But the prognosis is that he'll come back 100 percent, so the Jayaramans are excited about bringing him back in 2010."
 Send this article to a friend
|
|
