Summer Bird Points For Haskell

Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird arrived back at his barn at Louisiana Downs late Monday night after a flight from New York to Louisville, Kentucky then a van ride down to Bossier City, Louisiana.

Trainer Tim Ice said Summer Bird came out of the Belmont Stakes in good order and has done nothing but walk around the barn on Tuesday and Wednesday morning for exercise. Ice said Summer Bird will go back to the track this week and begin preperation for the $1 million Haskell Invitational to be run at Monmouth Park in New Jersey on August 2.

Don't feel too bad for Mark Allen, the co-owner of Belmont third-place finisher Mine That Bird. Later that Saturday afternoon his Quarter Horses ran 1-2 in the $308,073 Ruidoso Derby. Time For A Cigar defeated Shaboomato in the 400-yard race and both race under the Golden Eagle silks for trainer Tony Sedillo.

Churchill Downs again takes center stage in racing this weekend with the grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap for older horses. The morning line favorite is Einstein, your horse for any course horse. In his last two grade 1 races, he has won the Santa Anita Handicap over the synthetic racing surface in Southern California in March and the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on grass at Churchill Downs. The $600,000 Steven Foster is run on natural dirt.

A victory would push Einstien, a Brazilian-bred, into third place on the 2009 money list among thoroughbreds.

Churchill will also feature on Saturday four other graded stakes and the traditional presentation of engraved trophies to the winning connections from the Kentucky Oaks and Derby.

Dunkirk emerged from his game second-place finish in Saturday's Belmont Stakes with a non-displaced condylar fracture in his left hind cannon bone and will most likely miss the remainder of his 3-year-old season, his connections announced Tuesday. The condyle is the round or bulbous bottom of the cannon bone on a horse which is similar to a shin bone on a human. In most cases, a condular fracture can easily be repaired with surgery and the horse can resume training in a few months.

The surgery will be performed at the Ruffian Equine Medical Center located next to Belmont Park before Dunkirk will be returned to his barn at Belmont Park Thursday and then sent to Ashford Stud in Lexington, Kentucky to recover.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said owners Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith,, and Susan Magnier do want to try and bring Dunkirk back to the races if possible.

"I don't anticipate this would prevent him from reaching his maximum potential," Pletcher said. "There have been a lot of horses that have returned from this sort of injury and done extremely well."

The Other Big Winning Bird: Birdstone

Just over five years ago in early June, the racing world was anticipating the Belmont Stakes as the possible crowning of the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Smarty Jones had blazed through Arkansas, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and entered the Belmont stakes undefeated in 8 career starts. However, on June 5, 2004, Smarty Jones finished a heartbreaking second in the Belmont Stakes, being upset in a late charge by the 36-1 longshot Birdstone. Speculation arose that the loss was a result of jockey Stuart Elliott allowing Smarty Jones to assume the lead too early.

That day, Birdstone was the villian. But during this year's Triple Crown races, Birdstone was royal. Because the son of 1996 Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone produced both Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and Belmont Stakes victor Summer Bird from his crop of foals to race. (Or in non-breeding venacular, his oldest kids.) And just as he did as a diminutive 1,000 pound race horse, Birdstone once again emerged from the shadows to grab the spotlight. Only this time at the Kentucky breeding farms.

Because before this year's Triple Crown, before the 2009 breeding season that recently ended, the stud fee on Birdstone was a paultry $10,000. Meaning that if you wanted to breed your mare to Birdstone, it cost you $10,000 for that service. Ten thousand dollars may sound like quite a sum, but consider that the sire of Belmont runner-up Dunkirk, Unbridled Song, stands for $125,000. The sire of Belmont Stakes also-ran Mr. Hot Stuff is by Tiznow, who has a $75,000 stud fee.

But why the low fee on Birdstone. Afterall, he was a winner of the Belmont Stakes - The Test of Champions. He had won the prestigious, $500,000 Champagne Stakes as a 2-year-old showing his early talent. And after the Belmont, he went on to win the grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga before retiring with a $1.5 million bankroll.

He was undoubtably penalized by his sire somewhat. Even though Grindstone was himself a Kentucky Derby winner, his days in the breeding shed have not been that productive other than Birdstone. Perhaps he was penalized by his stature. He stands just over 15.3 hands (63 inches), short by thoroughbred stallion standards, a trait he apparently passed on to Mine That Bird. Breeders like to see much larger thoroughbred stalllions that are at least 16.2 hands (66 inches) and Unbridled's Song is 17 hands even by comparison.

That genetic mark probably had an impact when his first get started going through the all important thoroughbred auctions and brought just over an average of $41,000, well below the $90,000 to $100,000 prices for yearlings at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in Lexington, Kentucky, just miles from where Birdstone currently reside at the famous Gainesway Farm.

But now Birdstone is going to demand much more for his treasured traits with Mine That Bird and Summer Bird both now classic winners. Some estimate his 2010 fee will be raised into the $40,000 range. And because high performance begets higher demand, he will have more mares to breed next year. That means his value could go from approximately $2 million to $20 million by some estimates.

Belmont Trainers Report All's Well

Trainers of the top four finishers in Saturday's Belmont Stakes all came out of the race in good order and are resting at their barns at Belmont Park.

Charitable Man and Dunkirk will remain at their barns at Belmont Park while winner Summer Bird and third-place finisher Mine That Bird will be flown back to Churchill Downs early Monday. Summer Bird will then travel by van to trainer Tim Ice's homebase at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La. Plans as to where Chip Woolley will train Mine That Bird this summer have not been determined.

“We’ve discussed the Jim Dandy and the Travers with the owners (Drs. Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman),” said winning trainer Tim Ice, his voice still hoarse Sunday morning from cheering Summer Bird home in Saturday. “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 two 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 mile-and-a-half race in great shape, said Ice.

“I had him grazing for two hours,” he said. “He looks great.”

No definite racing plans have been made for any of the other three horses, but races like the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in New Jersey or the Jim Dandy Stakeare possibly next for any of them. The Jim Dandy is run on Saturday, August 1 and the Haskell is run the following day. Races such as the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in September and the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita in early November were mentioned as longer term goals.

While the mood at Mine That Bird’s barn on Sunday morning was somewhat subdued, Mine That Bird himself showed no signs of exhaustion for his impressive effort running third in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

“He feels awful good this morning,” said trainer Chip Woolley “Awful bright and bouncing – he’s ready to get out and go do something.”

One look at the little gelding walking around the barn, peering inquisitively at the small crowd gathered outside bore this statement out. His trainer, stretched out in a lawn chair complete with footrest and cup holder for coffee, admitted a touch of fatigue.

“Talk about whipped,” Woolley said. “About halfway through dinner last night I just said ‘Guys, I’m done,’ and I’m not that type at all. I couldn’t believe how I hit a wall last night. I never thought I’d be sitting here sort of down about running third in the Belmont – this has been a lifetime dream.”

Although he is understandably disappointed by the loss, Woolley keeps it in perspective.

“When he was making for the lead as they turned for home, I was thinking ‘We’re in trouble,’” Woolley said. “It was just too early to make the lead here and I was really concerned we’d used a little too much horse in the turn. If you move too early with this horse, his past history shows he comes up empty. Tim (Ice, trainer of winning Summer Bird) is a great guy and he deserves to win. He’s done a nice job with his horse.”

Belmont Stakes Will Be Tough Challenge For Jockey Calvin Borel.

If anybody saw jockey Calvin Borel on the Late Show with David Letterman last night, they saw pretty much what would be expected. Honest-to-goodness Calvin Borel. Ever polite and quite composed, he was as insightful as the format allowed and he came through with his patent unpredictability when Letterman stunned him with the outfit question. My bottom line is that anytime one gets to hear a good horseman like Borel talk about good horses it's cool.

But I fear Calvin has a tough task ahead of him on favorite Mine That Bird today in the Belmont. And nobody could have said it better than Churchill Downs Communications man Darren Rogers. Today on his facebook page Rogers admitted that he and his Chuchill crew will be pulling for Mine That Bird in New York, but that he saw an upset in the making. The villian according to Rogers? Pace. The very thing I have written about throughout the week.

What is Borel going to do when the pace of the Belmont is slow as anticpated. Will he move Mine That Bird within striking distance a little earlier? Will that comprosise his patent late rush? Or Borel can lay far back behind a slow pace and still try to make a still make that late run and hope he can still catch the less tired leaders. To me this is the second most anticipated point in the race behind only the finish... and way ahead of the singing of New York New York.

On paper Dunkirk looks to me to be the logical choice. His second-place finish behind Quality Road in the Floriday Derby in late March is a far better performance than most of these other runners have yet achieved. He will also be saddled by champion trainer Todd Pletcher and ridden by jockey John Valazquez, a perenial leader among the East Coast riders. Valazquez knows the large Belmont oval known as the "big sandy" as well as anybody and won the Belmont Stakes two years ago with Pletcher and the filly Rags to Riches.

According to Progessive Handicapping, Borel has only three races over the Belmont track in the last three years with a second and a third. The record is of little consequence. What concerns me is that the 1-1/2 main track at Belmont Park is 50 percent larger than the Kentucky and Arkansas tracks on which Borel regularly rides. Many riders have fallen victim to the big track at the Big Apple and that list does not discriminate against Hall of Famers.

Usually much more reserved, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has been boasting all week about his Belmont starter Charitable Man. The anticipated second choice in the wagering is coming off of a victory at Belmont Park in winning the grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes May 9 so we know he likes the track. And Charitable Man does have the home-track advantage as well as McClughlin has been basing Charitbable Man out of his barn at Belmont Park.

Nobody wants Mine That Bird and Calvin Borel to win this race more than me. Not only do I think it would be very fun to have a horse like Mine That Bird continue on his path to racing stardom, but to see Calvin Borel win the Triple Crown in such distinctive fashion will be somthing people will remember for a long time. If Mine That Bird achieves to status and following of the last Kentucky Derby winning gelding Funny Cide, it will be to the benefit of all racing fans. That late acceleration that he has makes him even more exciting and fun to watch.

And those post-victory horseback interviews with Borel on network television are worth the price of admission alone. It won't matter if we see the emotional Calvin Borel we saw following the Kentucky Derby or a more calm Calvin Borel talking about how he just chirped to the little horse and he just went on. Listening to Borel talk about horses is cool.

Mine That Bird Draws Post 7 for Belmont

post positions, jockeys and morning line odds for Saturday’s Belmont

1. Chocolate Candy, Garrett Gomez, 10-1
2. Dunkirk, John Velazquez, 4-1
3. Mr. Hot Stuff, Edgar Prado, 15-1
4. Summer Bird, Kent Desormeaux, 12-1
5. Luv Gov, Miguel Mena, 20-1
6. Charitable Man, Alan Garcia, 3-1
7. Mine That Bird, Calvin Borel, 2-1
8. Flying Private, Julian Leparoux, 12-1
9. Miner’s Escape, Joe Lezcano, 15-1
10. Brave Victory, Rajiv Maragh, 15-1
Blinkers on: Summer Bird

BELMONT STAKES WINNERS BY POST POSITIONS (SINCE 1905)
1 - (23) 3 - (13) 5 - (14) 7 - (12) 9 - (4) 11 - (2)
2 - (11) 4 - (9) 6 - (7) 8 - 6) 10 - (2)

“C” is the most popular first initial for winning Belmont runners. "C" horss have taken 20 runnings of the race. There have only been four Belmont Stakes winners whose first initial is "M"... There has never been a walkover in the Belmont. There have been five two-horses fields: 1887, 1888, 1892, 1910 and when Man o’ War won in 1920. The largest field was 15 in 1983, when Caveat defeated Slew o’ Gold... MINE THAT BIRD is trying to become the first horse since Thunder Gulch in 1995 to win the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes... The Belmont Stakes trophy is a solid silver bowl and cover made by Tiffany & Co. It is 18 inches tall, 15 inches across and 14 inches at the base. Atop the cover is a silver figure of 1869 Belmont winner Fenian. It was the trophy August Belmont received when Fenian won the third running and it had since remained with the Belmont family. The winning owner may keep the trophy for a year until the next Belmont winner is crowned.

Belmont Stakes, The Test of Champions

The Belmont Stakes is known as "The Test of Champions." That moniker is attributed mostly to the long, 1-1/2 mile distance of the Belmont but it is the race's place in the racing schedule that also makes it an examination of endurance and stamina.

The Kentucky Derby is traditionally run on the first Saturday in May. The Preakness is just two weeks later. Then there is three weeks between the second and third leg of the Triple Crown. This grueling series of three races in just five weeks also comes after a trying spring of running in very competitive races such as the Florida Derby, Louisiana Derby, Santa Anita Derby, Wood Memorial and others. And those are just the final preps that are usually proceeded by two, three or four races before that in most pre-Triple Crown campaigns.

Legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham once said thoroughbreds are like strawberries - they can go bad on you overnight. So you can imagine how special and talented a horse must be to survive the Triple Crown only to have it culminate with the 12 furlong Belmont.

A closer look at the contenders for Saturday's race illustrates this point. Only pre-race favorite Mine That Bird and the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Flying Private have started in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Mine That Bird will be making his fifth start this year after prepping for the Derby on the sub-major league oval of Sunland Park near El Paso, Texas. Iron horse Flying Private will be making his ninth start of the year and will be the only Belmont starter to have raced in every month of 2009.

Chocolate Candy, Dunkirk, Mr. Hot Stuff and Summer Bird started in the Derby but skipped the Preakness. Luv Gov started in the Preakness, but missed the Derby. Charitable Man and Miner's Escape make their first appearances in a Triple Crown race.

In the last ten runnings of the Belmont only Afleet Alex in 2005 and Point Given in 2001 have won the Belmont after starting in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The last two winners, Da' Tara last year and the filly Rags to Riches in 2007 were both newcomers to the Triple Crown.