Summer Bird dies of colic

Summer Bird had completed his third season at stud, but first since his export to Japan, in 2013 (Matt Wooley/EquiSport Photos)

Champion Summer Bird, the 2009 Belmont Stakes winner, died Tuesday from a
bout with colic in Japan.

Bred and raced by Drs. K.K. and V. Devi Jayaraman and trained by Tim Ice, the
handsome chestnut broke his maiden at second asking and was an outstanding third
in the Arkansas Derby in just his third career start before finishing a
respectable sixth behind Mine That Bird  in that year’s Kentucky Derby.
Sent off at odds just shy of 12-1 for the Belmont, he had some trouble in the
early portions of the race, but rallied into the lane and drove past Dunkirk to
score by 2 3/4 lengths.

Second to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational, Summer Bird added the
Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup, besting Quality Road on each of those
occasions, prior to a creditable fourth behind Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup
Classic, his first over a synthetic track. Connections sent the colt overseas
for the Japan Cup Dirt, but he suffered a fracture training up to that race. He
was transferred to trainer Tim Ritchey in an attempt to bring him back for a
four-year-old season, but X-rays taken in late spring 2010 showed he had not
healed well enough to go on.