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It seems like yesterday when Tim Ice and the Jayaramans were standing in the basement of Belmont Park at their winning press conference where Dr. KKJ was lavishing praise on his trainer. But in the theme of "what have you done for me lately" the Jayaramans relieved Ice of his training duties of 25 horses, rendering his barn practically empty (six horses remain). Five of these horses were nominated to the 2010 Triple Crown. While I'm sure you've already heard the news, I took a burn to this, mainly due to my affinity for Summer Bird and his terrific 3yo season wherein he won the Belmont Stakes, the Travers Stakes and the Jockey Club Gold Cup. KKJ cited "communication issues" with Ice. From where I come from it takes two sides to communicate and I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't cut a guy who delivered him a Triple Crown race some slack. Ice did a fabulous job training the Bird during his Eclipse winning season (don't forget he was 6th in the Kentucky Derby and 4th in the BC Classic to boot), winning over $2.3M in the process for the Jayaramans. His move to put blinkers on Summer Bird before the Belmont was a terrific job of training. Not too shabby. But I guess his current Oaklawn meeting numbers (2 for 15) for the doctors just aren't cutting it so....thanks for coming.
Ice said during the Belmont press conference, "If my career goes nowhere from here, I've got a Belmont win. They can't take it away from me." Let's hope he can pick up the pieces and some new, more appreciative owners in the process. He's still has this fan in his corner.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Cold As Ice
Posted by Gene Kershner at 4:09 PM
Labels: Jayaramans, Summer Bird, Tim Ice
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10 Comments:
I totally agree with you! Tim Ice did a terrific job on Summer Bird last year, taking him from a green, but talented colt who only could close from way back, to one that learned to rate and obviously was on top of his game. From what I've read about his owners, they go through trainers like Paris Hilton goes through BBFs, so I don't doubt Ice will be able to pick up better clients. Good luck to him!
Summer Bird is their horse and they can do as they please but it appears that Ice can "communicate" with Summer Bird better than he does with the Docs. That is what counts, at least I thought that was what counts.
What is a headscratcher to me is that the barn Summer Bird is going to is not exactly tearing it up at Oaklawn Park either:
Timothy F. Ritchey
16 2 3 6 $95,128
Tim A. Ice
28 2 3 1 $62,109
I've seen it before, it happens all the time
You're closing the door, you leave the world behind
You're digging for gold, you're throwing away
A fortune in feelings, but someday you'll pay
(Cold as ice) You know that you are
Karma is nothing if not fair. Ice found a little success and abandoned his wife and new baby. Well done Karma.
Val: He certainly did a super job.
John: Me too!
TKS: I knew you'd pull out the Foreigner bit...I almost embedded the youtube...lol.
Anon: Sounds like you have a case of the schadenfreude.
Will it really matter who trains Summer Bird? At best, he's 4th on the list of older horses behind Quality Road, Rachel, and Zenyatta in any order anyone wants to rank those 3.
I feel bad for Ice the trainer, said as much when Quality Road was taken from Jimmy Jerkens. If anon is correct about his personal life, bad mojo is bad mojo.
Geno - I remember that Cold as Ice too well.
'Twas my first case of "puppy love" in the winter of 1976.
In the future I wouldn't mind if you embedded Girl on the Moon. I can't seem to find that anywhere on YouTube.
Instead of Jockeys maybe we need a reality show on the Trainers?
Amateurcapper, how do you figure Summer Bird is ranked behind Quality Road? Last time I checked, Summer Bird beat Quality Road both times they met: in the Travers and JCGC. And Summer Bird ran in the BC Classic, finishing fourth, while QR never left the gate. Until QR beats him, the Bird still rules the roost, IMHO.
Lets just say we know about 1/10th of whats going on; both b/t the jockey and trainer and in Tim's turmoiled personal life.
What we do know for a fact is that Quality Road is, was, and will always be a better horse than Summer Bird - sans maye at the one in a lifetime mile a half belmont distance. Quality Road broke VERY poorly in the Travers, raced VERY wide in the Jockey Club, and got VERY spooked by the wax pellets beneath his feet at gate of the BC Classic - with any luck at all Oaklawn would be throwing money on on the fire for a Rachel vs Quality Road showdown. Summerbird is a honest horse, but please dont tell me he is faster than Quality Road. Excuses aside, racing luck aside, 9 out of 10 trainer would take Quality Raod over Summer bird every day of the week - and they wouldnt even need long to think about it.
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