by Jeff Lowe
With no clear leader in the three-year-old male division and Rachel Alexandra out of the picture for the rest of the year, Summer Bird will get a chance to shine on Saturday in the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park.
For starters, Summer Bird figures to be the favorite for the first time in his seven-race career as he faces older rivals and Florida Derby Presented by BlackBerry (G1) winner Quality Road in the 1¼-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, which has helped solidify Eclipse Award credentials in each of the last three years.
Curlin won the Jockey Club Gold Cup and received Horse of the Year and divisional titles in both 2007 and ’08. Bernardini scored by 6¾ lengths in the 2006 Jockey Club Gold Cup, helping to build his case for champion three-year-old male.
“With the Gold Cup being at Belmont and him being proven over the track already, I think the race would be a very good steppingstone for him to clinch the three-year-old male Eclipse Award,” trainer Tim Ice said. “The Gold Cup set up perfectly—he didn’t have to travel very far, it’s just a short trip down from Saratoga [Race Course], and we got to keep Kent Desormeaux.”
Desormeaux had a commitment on October 10 at Keeneland Race Course that would have prevented him from being able to ride Summer Bird that day in the Goodwood Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park, the other major prep that Ice considered for the Birdstone colt.
The Goodwood would have given Summer Bird a prep on the synthetic Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita prior to the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) there on November 7.
Ice acknowledged that he expects Quality Road to improve off of his third-place finish as the Shadwell Travers Stakes (G1) favorite. Quality Road set a track record in the Amsterdam Stakes (G2) at 6½ furlongs on August 3 at Saratoga in his only start since the Florida Derby.
“I think [Quality Road will step forward],” Ice said. “At the same time, I feel that Summer Bird is equal or better than Quality Road. I don’t think Summer Bird is any less of a horse than Quality Road. I feel like I have the best three-year-old right now, and that’s how I’m coming into the race. Quality Road has to step up to beat me. He has a lot to prove against Summer Bird, not the other way around.”
Macho Again, who came up a head short of catching Rachel Alexandra at the line in the Woodward Stakes (G1) on September 5, is one of the older horses in the expected lineup for the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Summer Bird came into the Travers off a second-place finish by six lengths to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) on August 2 on a sloppy track at Monmouth Park.
“Obviously, Macho Again is a very nice horse, and he did run close [to Rachel Alexandra],” Ice said. “He ran a very hard race, and he’s coming back in four weeks, while [Summer Bird] has five weeks [in between the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup]. He had a lot better setup in his run against [Rachel Alexandra] than Summer Bird did. She was pushed several times before he had his run at her. She was definitely softened up quite a bit for him to get closer to her than Summer Bird was. He’s definitely one of the horses to beat.”
Jeff Lowe is staff writer for Thoroughbred Times