Contact Information:
Bob Roberts (216-662-8600)
June 11, 2009
www.thistledown.com
Upset Belmont Winner Summer Bird Trained By East Liverpool Native Ice
The Belmont Stakes has been run 141 times, including last Saturday's renewal. Not a single one of them has been won by an Ohio-bred horse. How about an Ohio-bred trainer?
Say hello to Tim Ice, conditioner of Summer Bird, upset winner of the latest Belmont Stakes on a stretch run that denied Kentucky Derby winner Mind That Bird the final jewel of the Triple Crown. Ice, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Belmont Day, is a native of East Liverpool, the Columbiana County town that sits on the Ohio River.
"I was born at the East Liverpool Hospital, right by the bridge, the one that takes you over the river to Mountaineer Park, which was Waterford when I started going there," said Ice.
While it appears that Ice is an overnight sensation -- he's been a head trainer for less than 15 months -- the lanky Buckeye has paid his dues. Ice was an assistant trainer for over 10 years, breaking into the business after his family moved from Ohio to Louisiana when he was 15.
"Not only did I spent many nights at Mountaineer, I also visited Thistledown when my stepfather (Frank Rapp) ran horses up there."
Ice is still recovering from his big day at Belmont with Summer Bird. "I yelled for him to get there from the quarter pole to the wire."
Ice said he will probably rest Summer Bid until running him in either the Haskell at Monmouth or the Jim Dandy at Saratoga.
“The race we are pointing for is the Travers (at Saratoga on Aug. 29)," said Ice, who calls Bossier City, La., home.
He notched his first stakes success with Affirmed Truth in the Rainbow Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Oaklawn Park on March 28 of this year. Ice was an assistant to jockey Kent Desormeaux’s brother, Keith, for five years.
Desormeaux, who lost out on Triple Crown glory last year when Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown failed to win the Belmont, rode Summer Bird in Saturday's Belmont.
THISTLEDOWN REPORT --- Trainer Shirley Girten-Drake and jockey Jane Magrell combined to win Monday's opening daily double, scoring with Summer Money in the opener and Banyan Tree in the second race. The Girten-Drake-Magrell combination also scored victory in May 13 $55,000 Classen Memorial with Money Card . . . Railbirds are reminded that with no live racing on Sundays, there will not be a Father's Day Brunch in Thistledown's clubhouse on June 21s. . Rightfuly, a 10-year-old who was prominent in the early running of Saturday's eighth race, tired to finish last. She has license to need the effort. Rightfully had been idle since finishing fourth at Charles Town on Dec. 27 in 2002 . . . Veteran jockey Rene Douglas, seriously injured in a spill at Arlington Park last week (he's paralyzed from the waist down), won the 2006 Ohio Derby aboard Deputy Glitters . . . On a happier jockeys' note, Jenna Joubert set some sort of record when she rode three winners on May 14 at three different tracks in three different states. Joubert won a race at Baltimore's Pimlico in the afternoon, then scored at two nighttime tracks, Penn National near Harrisburg, Pa. and at Charles Town in West Virginia.
LEADERBOARD --- Through 24 days of the 46-day Summit-Thistledown Meeting, Ernesto Oro holds a commanding lead in the riders' derby. Oro has 26 winners to current runner-up Weldon Cloninger, Jr.'s 16 winners. Jane Magrell is the leading female rider with nine victories. Kris Fox is the top apprentice with three victories… The trainers' race is much tighter. Jamie Ness leads the way with 11 winners, just one more than both Jeff Radosevich and Jevon Crumley. Randy Joe Faulkner is next in line with seven winners. Outlaws and Angels, Inc. (Faulkner) and Midwest Thoroughbred (Ness) are the top stables, each with nine victories . . . There are 20 horses tied for winningest horse at the meeting with two scores. Gordon, two-for-three, is the richest with purse earnings of $16,200.