Word out of Elmont, New York the other week had Tim Ice’s Summer Bird training ahead of one of the Belmont Blockbusters this weekend- The 2009 Jockey Club Gold Cup. The three year-old colt breezed a 50.64 five furlongs over the main track, which was rated as fast. We all know that the first few furlongs are never Summer Bird’s best ,but according to his trainer, that was never the goal of the workout anyway. “I wanted to see how he finished, and he looked good finishing.”
Summer Bird went out for another run this past weekend and wasn’t really pushed at all with Kent Desormeaux piloting him to a 1:02.37 five furlongs. Bird had been clocked at 59.99 earlier over five furlongs and that was apparently a bit fast for for Ice, whom ESPN quoted as saying “WE just wanted to slow him down… Today was more getting him to relax and let him finish.”
Quality Road has been training in Elmont as well and looks set to take a spot in the race, which should feature a total of six horses. This will be Summer Bird’s first go at older colts and we’ll see if he can match up against Woodward runner-up Macho Again- who put in a hell of a late charge against Rachel Alexandra.
Macho Again is owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and is a really quality runner.
