ESPN Horse Racing

ELMONT, NY -- He was born September 15, squalling bundle thrust into the arms of Heather Ice at a hospital in Louisiana, his picture snapped and shuttled across cyberspace to a barn in New York in his first minutes here on earth.

Standing next to Summer Bird's stall at Belmont one day before the colt would tackle older horses in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Tim Ice pulled out his cell phone and scrolled through images of a son he has yet to hold.

"It's unreal, you know?" He said, 35 years old, parent for the first time. "It's all so new."

Carson James, eight pounds, 18 inches, will know this about his birth -- that in the months before, a colt the color of shining copper came to his father needing only to be managed correctly, fostered to brilliance. Carson will know that Tim Ice, doing so, missed the moment of his arrival, but if horsemen's blood runs strongly through his veins, he won't ever mind, because the horse standing in Barn 12A is building his family's future.

Summer Bird, 2009 Belmont Stakes winner, put Tim Ice on the map. A champion runner, gift to an independent career launched less than two years ago, he proved his credibility with an ensuing second-place finish to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational and a resounding victory in the Travers Stakes. Tomorrow, with a score outside of his sophomore class, the son of Birdstone could effectively silence what critics remain.

And, most important to Ice, Summer Bird is finally earning the respect of an industry that was less than willing to grant it to him earlier in the season.

"Definitely I think it's good that they've noticed he wasn't just a one-hit wonder, that it didn't have to be 1 ½ miles or nothing for him to win," the trainer said. "At each point, going into any race, it didn't bother me. I could watch him train and work and see the improvement every race, so I didn't worry about being an underdog or anything like that because I felt very confident going into each race. Still, I'm glad he's getting the respect because he deserves it; it's good to see."

In the weeks that have passed since his Travers score the colt has gone nowhere but forward, blossoming into a solid mass of muscle and determination. Ice has upped his feed allotment and altered his training schedule to accommodate his forward attitude. He thinks Summer Bird is sitting on yet another victory.

"It's no exaggeration, coming off the Travers I had to send him back to the track sooner than I usually do," Ice said. "He's just into the bit, he's training awesome, and his two five-eighths works here (Sept. 26 in 1:02.40 and Sept. 19 in 1:00.05) have been just out-of-this-world good. The first one gave me goosebumps, watching him work down the stretch, because Kent (Desormeaux) was just sitting on him. Watching him cover the ground he was covering, it was scary good. It's exciting to watch as he moves forward, because he's progressing with each race and I can tell that he is getting better."

The son of Birdstone returns to the site of his Belmont upset to tackle older horses such as Macho Again (second to Rachel Alexandra in the Sept. 8 Woodward Stakes), Dry Martini, and Asiatic Boy in the 1 ¼-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, as well as Florida Derby winner Quality Road who exits a third-place Travers finish.

"He's put on weight, he's filling out more, and I don't know how much more he's going to improve, but he hasn't peaked yet," Ice said.

For now, the young trainer is focused on what tomorrow holds, a challenge Summer Bird must ace as a stepping-stone to the Breeders' Cup Classic and the final test of the season. If all goes as planned, he'll ship straight to Santa Anita in dogged pursuit of that crown for owners Dr. K. K. Jayaraman and V. Devi Jayaraman. It's his job, and he thinks a colt like this could come around again, but he doesn't know for sure.

Someday, he thinks, maybe his son will look back at these win pictures and hope to achieve the same level of success with his own runner, the kind you only dream of.

A horse like Summer Bird.

Claire Novak is an award-winning journalist whose coverage of the thoroughbred industry appears in a variety of outlets, including The Blood-Horse Magazine, The Albany Times Union and NTRA.com. She lives in Lexington, Ky.