Summer Bird

2009 Prep Recap

Date	Trk	Race	Chart	Distance	Time	BSF	Video
3/1	OP	Maiden Special Weight 34K	Chart	6 f	1:11	65	N/A
3/19	OP	Maiden Special Weight 35K	Chart	1 1/16m	1:43	78	N/A
4/11	OP	Arkansas Derby (G2)	Chart	1 1/8m	1:49	99

Profile by Art Gropper

Strengths: Appears to want to run all day with a strong finishing kick that would make him seemingly perfectly suited for the 1 1/4-mile distance. Has the pedigree to succeed, being a son of 2004 Belmont Stakes upsetter Birdstone with a Kentucky Derby-winning grandsire (Grindstone) and great-grandsire (Unbridled). Is coming into this as a rapidly improving 3-year-old who needed a huge run in the Arkansas Derby just to make it here.

Weaknesses: Did not race as a 2-year-old, and like Dunkirk is giving away tons of racing experience to the rest of the field with just three career starts. Every Kentucky Derby winner since Apollo in 1882 raced as a juvenile, while this guy began his racing career just 62 days ago. Always breaks behind the field and will need some racing luck to rally past the majority of these more seasoned runners.

Strategy: No sense in taking him out of his best game. He is as deep of a closer as you can get in this race. With Quality Road and Old Fashioned both absent, the pace scenario may not be as lightning quick as he would prefer. Was taken far back in the Arkansas Derby. He will likely sit back and attempt to make one sustained run, while most likely traveling wide.

Value: Since he is still eligible for an N1X allowance and is one of just three runners in the field not to have won a stakes, he will likely be 30-1 or better.

Pedigree Analysis By Dan Illman

Dosage Profile: 4-4-7-1-0
Dosage Index:  2.56
Center of Distribution:  0.69
Auction:  Homebred

Sire:  Birdstone was all the rage at Saratoga as a two-year-old as he won his debut by 12 1/2 lengths going six furlongs with a Beyer Speed Figure of 99. After upsetting Smarty Jones in the Belmont Stakes, Birdstone received a career top Beyer of 108 in winning the Travers at 1 1/4 miles. 
Summer Bird is from Birdstone's first crop, but one would expect a Belmont and Travers winner to get classic-type performers.

Dam:   Hong Kong Squall, a $22,000 yearling purchase by Preakness winner Summer Squall, was winless in nine tries, but placed three times at 1 1/16 miles.  Her half-sister, Peninsula, placed in the Lecomte Stakes at one mile on the main track. 
The second dam, by Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba, is a half-sister to the multiple Grade 1 winner Rubiano, a top-notch sprinter/miler in the early 1990's, and stakes-winning sprinter Tap Your Heels, the dam of Wood Memorial winner Tapit. 
Other notable names in the pedigree include graded winners and successful stallions Glitterman and Relaunch.

Outlook:  Birdstone adds stamina to the pedigree, but there is a good deal of sprinter and miler speed close up in the female family.  The class deep in the female family may help lightly-raced Summer Bird get the distance.