Summer Bird to stand for $15K

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Champion Summer Bird will enter stud in 2011 with a $15,000 fee, Elaine and Ben Walden’s Pauls Mill announced Tuesday.

The Versailles, Ky.,farm also stands Artie Schiller, Bellamy Road, and U S Ranger, and two of those sires will have fee cuts in 2011. Artie Schiller will drop from his 2010 fee level of $15,000 to $10,000, and U S Ranger will decrease from $10,000 to $5,000. Bellamy Road will have the same fee he had this year, $10,000.

“Our mission at Pauls Mill is to shower breeders with stud fee value and personal attention,” Walden said. “To that end, our 2011 fees speak for themselves, but Summer Bird’s introductory fee breaks all the rules.”

All fees are on stands-and-nurses terms.

Summer Bird was voted last year’s 3-year-old champion male after he won the Belmont, Travers, and Jockey Club Gold Cup. A 4-year-old Birdstone colt, he is out of the Summer Squall mare Hong Kong Squall. He arrived at Pauls Mill this summer.