Horse Racing News is the source of thoroughbred racing information with horse racing odds, betting tips, racing picks, race results, and handicapping. Latest news and articles on top horse racing contenders, jockeys, trainers, three-year-olds, race tracks, and major stakes races such as the Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes as well as the Breeders' Cup horse races.Summer Bird Could Race In The Travers Stakes at Saratoga; Mine That Bird Eyeing The Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita
Posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009
Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird could return this summer to New York to run at Saratoga Race Course in the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) on August 1 and the $1-million Travers Stakes (G1) on August 29.
“We’ve discussed the Jim Dandy and the Travers with the owners (Drs. Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman),” said Belmont Stakes winning trainer Tim Ice. “If we go, like we did for the Belmont, we’ll go ahead of time, ship up a month before the (August 1) Jim Dandy.”
“People tell me you have to go to 2 places — Del Mar and Saratoga,” said Ice, who took out his trainer’s license 14 months ago. “I’ve been to Del Mar, and to take a horse like this and go to Saratoga would be amazing.”
Summer Bird, who was making only his fifth career start in the Belmont, came out of the 1 1/2 mile Belmont Stakes in great shape, said Ice.
“I had him grazing for two hours,” race horse trainer Tim Ice said. “He looks great.”
The homebred son of 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone, Summer Bird, will leave New York on Monday and be flown to Louisville. From there, he will be vanned to Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., Ice’s home base
.
Mine That Bird
Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird showed no signs of exhaustion after running third in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.
“He feels awful good this morning,” said trainer Chip Woolley “Awful bright and bouncing — he’s ready to get out and go do something.”
Mine That Bird may not have come home a winner on Saturday, but his trainer is as impressed as ever with the son of 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone.
“There’s only one 3-year-old this year who made it through all 3 of these races and was right there all 3 times,” Woolley said. “The horse showed up every time. He’s the same horse he was when I led him over to the Derby and I’m in love with what I saw here.”
Mine That Bird will ship back to Churchill Downs at 6 a.m. Monday, and Woolley said they planned to spend the week in Kentucky and was still discussing Mine That Bird’s future with owners Mark Allen and Dr. Leonard Blach. He hopes to get two good races into the gelding before the Breeders’ Cup in November at Santa Anita Park.
“We’ll see what fits his schedule best,” Woolley said. “I’d rather keep him on dirt and against other three-year-olds. It may be a couple of days before we make a hard decision, and we’ll definitely for sure give him eight weeks off now. There’s a lot of opportunity out here [on the East Coast] more than anything out West, even in California.”
Woolley named the Jim Dandy or the Travers Stakes 2009 at Saratoga Race Course among the options he was considering for Mine That Bird, but said the welfare of the horse would dictate his next move.
Horse racing news edited from www.belmontstakes.com.
Tags: Mine That Bird, Summer Bird
"Summer Bird Could Race In The Travers Stakes at Saratoga; Mine That Bird Eyeing The Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita" was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Belmont Park, Belmont Stakes, Horse Racing Industry, Horses, Race Tracks News, Saratoga, Stakes Races, Trainers, Triple Crown, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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