Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird out of Japan Cup Dirt with injured right foreleg

Summer Bird out of Japan Cup Dirt

TOKYO — Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird has been declared out of the Dec. 6 Japan Cup Dirt after a small chip was detected in his right front carpal bone.

According to the colt’s owner, Dr. Kalarikkal Jayaraman, the chip was detected following the 3-year-old colt’s preparatory workout for trainer Tim Ice at Hanshin Race Course in Japan on Sunday morning.

“He breezed today in preparation for the race and afterward he was not walking right, so Tim took an X-ray and they found the chip,” Jayaraman said from Japan. “We are going to watch him for a couple of days here and then ship him back to Lexington. He’s comfortable, he’s not in any pain.”

Jayaraman said the multiple Grade I winner may be retired to stud after returning to the U.S. However, he also indicated that routine surgery could be an option should the colt’s connections decide to race him in 2010.

“If he were a normal horse, we’d just take the chip out and run him again, but now we have to make a decision,” Jayaraman said. “He has won three Grade I races this year and has potential as a stallion.”

Summer Bird, a son of Birdstone, won the Belmont Stakes, Travers, and Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2009 and finished fourth in the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita, Calif. He had been training in Japan since Nov. 21 under Ice’s supervision.