HORSE RACING

• Summer Bird notches Belmont's Jockey Club Gold Cup

  
  

  Elmont, NY (Sports Network) - Summer Bird, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, fought off Quality Road down the stretch to capture Saturday's $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

  The 1 1/4-mile race comes just five weeks before the running of the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park.

  Summer Bird becomes the 10th three-year-old to win the Belmont Stakes, Travers and the Jockey Club Gold Cup in the same year. Easy Goer, in 1989, was the most recent three-year-old to pull off the feat.

  Setting the early pace in the Gold Cup on a sloppy track was Tizway with Quality Road racing in second well off the rail. Asiatic Boy and Summer Bird were running in third and fourth, respectively, in the seven-horse field.

  Entering the far turn, Quality Road and jockey John Velazquez took the lead from Tizway with Summer Bird gaining through the rain. At the top of the stretch Summer Bird and Quality Road were on even terms with Tizway in third on the inside.

  Summer Bird, trained by Tim Ice, edged away from Quality Road inside the eighth-pole and hit the wire a length ahead of the Florida Derby champ.

  Tizway, ridden by Rajiv Maragh, finished third, followed by Macho Again, Dry Martini, Sette E Mezzo and Asiatic Boy.

  Summer Bird covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.51.

  "Any 'Grade One' race is important," Ice said earlier in the week, "But when you add onto it the historical significance of Easy Goer being the last three- year-old to win the Belmont, the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup in the same year, it's very meaningful." In addition to Easy Goer, Man o'War (1920) and Arts and Letters (1969), three- year-olds who have won the Belmont, Travers and the Jockey Club Gold Cup include Twenty Grand (1931), One Count (1951), Gallant Man (1957), Sword Dancer (1959), Damascus (1967) and Temperence Hill (1980).

  Owned by Drs. Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman, Summer Bird picks up $450,000 with Saturday's victory. The chestnut colt, which did not race as a two-year- old, has won four of eight starts for more than $2 million.

  This is the first win of the Jockey Club Gold Cup for all of Summer Bird's people.

  Between his wins in the Belmont Stakes and Travers, Summer Bird finished second to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational. Quality Road was third in the Travers as the 3-2 favorite.

  Summer Bird returned $4.50, $2.80 and $2.10.

  Quality Road paid $3.80 and $3.80, and Tizway paid $6.30 to show.

  10/03 18:31:36 ET