NEWS
Injury knocks Summer Bird out of Japan Cup Dirt
Posted: Sunday, November 29, 2009 12:46 PM
SUMMER BIRD
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
Summer Bird, leading contender for champion three-year-old male honors in 2009, suffered an injury while training in Japan for next month’s Japan Cup Dirt (Jpn-G1) and could be retired.
The three-year-old Birdstone colt emerged from a workout on Sunday morning at Hanshin Racecourse with a metacarpus fracture in his right foreleg.
An Associated Press report said Dr. Kalarikkal Jayaraman, who owns Summer Bird in partnership with his wife, Dr. Vilasini Jayaraman, said Summer Bird was “not walking right” after the workout and trainer Tim Ice ordered an X-ray that detected the chip.
“We are going to watch him for a couple of days here and then ship him back to Lexington,” Jayaraman said. “He’s comfortable; he’s not in any pain.”
Jayaraman did not say that Summer Bird would definitely be retired, but the report indicated a surgical procedure to remove the chip would be done if the colt was going to race in 2010.
“If he were a normal horse, we’d just take the chip out and run him again, but now we have to make a decision,” Jayaraman said. “He has won three Grade 1 races this year and has potential as a stallion.”
Summer Bird finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) in just his fourth career start, and then returned five weeks later to win the Belmont Stakes (G1). After finishing second to leading Horse of the Year contender Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), Summer Bird won the Shadwell Travers Stakes (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) in back-to-back starts.
Summer Bird finished fourth, beaten three lengths by leading Horse of the Year contender Zenyatta, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on November 7 at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park. He had been training in Japan since November 21 in preparation for the December 6 Japan Cup Dirt.
