Summer Bird, Pure Clan, Kodiak Kowboy Win Big Races at Belmont

Monday, October 05, 2009

Runners from Oaklawn Park once again performed with style, winning some of the most important races of the weekend and, perhaps, punching a Breeders' Cup ticket for each.  In the case of Drs. K.K. and Devi Jayaraman's Summer Bird, the win in Saturday's $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup probably also put a lock on the 2009 Eclipse Award for the outstanding three-year-old colt or gelding.

Summer Bird, Lewis Lakin's Pure Clan and Fox Hill Farm and Vinery Stable's Kodiak Kowboy all put in winning performances over the sloppy and soft going at Belmont Park on Saturday afternoon and did so in impressive come-from-behind fashion.

For Summer Bird it was not just the win, his first over older rivals, but the fact that he topped a major rival, Quality Road, that virtually awarded him the Eclipse Award.  In winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup he became the first horse since Easy Goer in 1989 to win all three of the major races in New York, the Belmont, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup, in the same year.  He has now won half of his eight career starts and lifted his earnings just over the $2 million mark.  His only defeat of the summer came when he raced a game second to the brilliant Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth.  Rachel Alexandra, of course, is the heavy favorite to be labelled Horse-of-the-Year, as well as champion three-year-old filly.  This is the first time in Oaklawn history for the three-year-old crop to have been so dominant over the rest. 

Jockey Kent Desormeaux is excited about Summer Bird and the chance to ride him in the rich Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7.  He used terms like "coasting" and "cruising" in descriptions of the beautiful chestnut and exclaimed "He's trying to be the best horse I've ever ridden.  He was awesome.  But he pulled up quietly like nothing had ever happened."  Those are big words from a jockey whose mounts include three Kentucky Derby winners, Big Brown, Real Quiet and Fusaichi Pegasus.

While Summer Bird was catching the biggest national headlines, Pure Clan uncorked her usual stretch run against a very slow pace and boggy going and won drawing off in the $600,000 Flower Bowl Stakes, at a mile-and-a-quarter on the turf.  The four-year-old filly, trained by Oaklawn legend, Bob Holthus, finished second and third, respectively, over the Oaklawn dirt track in the 2008 Honeybee and Fantasy Stakes.  Holthus, eager to avoid the ill-fated Eight Belles, who had defeated Pure Clan in both of her Oaklawn starts, switched his filly to the turf and was rewarded with top class performances.

Pure Clan had disappointed, however, in the 2008 Breeders' Cup, so Holthus had declared that Saturday's Flower Bowl would be Pure Clan's Breeders' Cup for this year.  Holthus has now issued a "not so fast" to those plans.  After the big win on the tiring Belmont turf on Saturday, Bob is now considering the trip to Santa Anita for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf on November 6.  Pure Clan now sports a career mark of eight wins from 15 starts and earnings of over $1.5 million.  Like Summer Bird, she is comparatively lightly raced and will have something of a freshness factor working to her advantage should she take on the best turf running fillies and mares at Breeders' Cup.

Kodiak Kowboy, on the other hand, has raced a good deal more.  His win in Saturday's $400,000 Vosburgh Stakes at six furlongs, included a last-to-first move to win over America's top-rated sprinter, Fabulous Strike.  Trained through most of his early career by Larry Jones, Kodiak Kowboy was switched to the barn of Steve Asmussen in anticipation of the retirement of Jones in the next couple of months. 

Kodiak Kowboy picked up the remarkable Asmussen momentum immediately to gain his 10th win in 22 starts.  The four-year-old son of Posse was an allowance winner at Oaklawn in 2008 and has yet to run over the synthetic track he will be facing in the Breeders' Cup Sprint on November 7.  However his running style seems well suited to the track at Santa Anita and Asmussen was quick to point his colt to that race right after the Vosburgh.