NEWS
Summer Bird breezes toward Haskell
Posted: Sunday, July 26, 2009 5:56 PM
Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman’s Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Summer Bird breezed five furlongs in 1:01.80 with jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard on Sunday morning in his last serious move before the $1,250,000 Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) on August 2.
The three-year-old Birdstone colt went to the track at about 9:45 a.m. EDT, moving over a muddy surface that had been sealed because of heavy rainfall overnight.
Monmouth Park clockers caught Summer Bird going the first quarter-mile in :26 and a half-mile in :49 before coming home in 1:01.80.
“He had a good strong work and he galloped out strong,” trainer Tim Ice said. “Everything was great. I couldn’t be happier.”
Desormeaux, a Racing Hall of Fame rider who was aboard for the Belmont victory and will be back aboard in the Haskell, was pleased with the move.
“The track was a little slick and I got him coming home in 11 [seconds] and change,” Desormeaux said. “I tried to get him over the best part of the racetrack. He knows the game and knows how to prepare himself. He’s ready.”
Desormeaux will try to become the first rider in the Oceanport, New Jersey, track’s history to win back-to-back editions of the Haskell. He won last year’s race aboard Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Big Brown.
Summer Bird will face this year’s BlackBerry Preakness Stakes winner, Rachel Alexandra, in the 1 1/8-mile race. The Medaglia d’Oro filly is scheduled to be shipped to Monmouth from Saratoga Race Course on Friday morning and school in the paddock with that day’s runners in the sixth race.
Also expected to start in the Haskell are Arkansas Derby (G2) winner Papa Clem, multiple Grade 2 winner Munnings, Long Branch Stakes winner Atomic Rain, Iowa Derby winner Duke of Mischief, and multiple stakes winner Bunker Hill.
