Summer Bird retired

Classic winner and champion SUMMER BIRD (Birdstone) has been retired

and will now head to the breeding shed after X-rays revealed a hairline

fracture.

The chestnut first suffered the injury when working in advance of

last December's Japan Cup Dirt (Jpn-G1). Summer Bird shipped to Japan on

November 19 and was training at Hanshin Racecourse, the site of the

race, when he came out of a work with a fracture in his right foreleg.

He underwent successful surgery to repair a nondisplaced fracture of his

right fore cannon bone and had been recovering.

"There's no soundness problem," owner/breeder Dr.

Kalarikkal Jayaraman told the Daily Racing Form. "He was supposed to start

breezing last

week, but we took an X-ray and he still has a tiny hairline fracture that

never healed

completely. He's not lame and he's been galloping a couple of miles every day.

But we had

consultations with some veterinarians, and they all suggested it's safer not to

put him

through the rigors of training and it's safer to retire him as a stallion."

After breaking his maiden in his second career start, the colt was

immediately entered against graded rivals and pulled out a game third in the

Arkansas Derby (G2). Based on that performance, his connections decided to give

him a shot in the Kentucky Derby (G1), and Summer Bird put in a nice seven-wide

rally to finish sixth over a sloppy surface on that day. He got his revenge on

Derby winner Mine That Bird (Birdstone), though, when taking the Belmont S. (G1)

in just his fifth career start.

Summer Bird was given a few months off following his Belmont score, returning

last August to finish second to eventual Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra

(Medaglia d'Oro) in the Haskell Invitational S. (G1). He rebounded to add the

Travers S. (G1) to his record and scored in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) in his

first start against older rivals in October at Belmont Park.

Despite his Japan

Cup Dirt aspirations, the chestnut ended up concluding his three-year-old

campaign, and his career, when fourth behind fellow champions Zenyatta (Street

Cry [Ire]) and Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat) as well as English highweight Twice Over (GB)

(Observatory) in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). His stellar season was enough

to see him voted the Eclipse Award as champion three-year-old male.