ESPN Horse Racing

ARCADIA, CALIF - On a cool November morning at Santa Anita Racetrack, Breeders' Cup Classic contender Summer Bird is taking a nap. He sleeps in a borrowed stall at the end of Patrick Biancone's barn, sturdy legs tucked up under his powerful chest. Trainer Tim Ice smiles when he arrives to check o his charge. All is well.

Seven months have passed since Ice arrived, amiable and accommodating, on the big-time racing scene. In that amount of time his shiny chestnut colt has gone from an unrecognized maiden winner to the leading contender for 3-year-old male championship honors, and Ice has set himself up for a successful career as a trainer of Classic-caliber horses. Owners are knocking at his door, and the Louisiana-based horseman will move his string to the New York circuit in the spring. He's kind of liking this running in big races thing.

It's been a whirlwind tour for the straight-shooting Ice from a Belmont Stakes score in June to a sweep of the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup mid and late season. Sitting across from Summer Bird's stall in Barn 48 at Santa Anita, three days remaining until he tackles the Classic and the undefeated Zenyatta, the 35-year-old horseman relives the experience.

"Coming off the third place finish in the Arkansas Derby and going to the Kentucky Derby, obviously it was all new," he says. "I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was a much better experience as far as going in there as a longshot than I thought; most of the time longshots don't get talked about."

Summer Bird didn't gain much fanfare off hi s sixth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, but Ice had been pointing toward another race all along -- the Belmont, which his colt won with ease.

"Overall I wasn't disappointed in how he ran in the Derby, and coming into the races after that, I think it was a lot easier for me as far as handling everything goes," Ice says. "I've always just tried to basically concentrate on each race. I knew the races were big races so I'm not going to say I approached them like any other races, but I did the best I could as far as training him. Everything I've done with him up to this point has been the same; I just continued to train him the same way I've trained him all along and he enjoys his schedule and I haven't changed anything since the first day I had him."

Ice sent the son of Birdstone through a solid summer campaign in which he won every race excepting one -- a runner-up finish to top Horse of the Year candidate Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational. That path led to Santa Anita in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, where Summer Bird faces his greatest challenge yet to date.

"I remember coming out to California when Skip Away won the Classic (in 1997)," Ice says. "You're thinking man, I would love to just have one in one of the races, just to be able to be there. I watched all those races and sat there thinking about how exciting it would be to enter a horse in one. And now not only am I in one, I'm in the Classic and he has a very good chance of winning. I couldn't have dreamed of being here in my first year and a half of training."

Along with the media spotlight, which the laid-back trainer and his equally professional runner have taken in stride, questions the duo has to answer include the one of surface transition -- if Summer Bird will perform on the artificial Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita as he did on the dirt tracks of the East Coast. He'll also have to tackle fresher horses like the unbeaten Zenyatta and several European runners who look to relish the Pro-Ride, but after sending his runner over the track for several works and gallops, Ice is confident he can contend.

"I love how he's training over the track," he says. "His works have been good, they've been solid, and it doesn't look like he's struggling to get over it. I think he's coming into this race in great shape. I had him walking last night, I got him out myself and was trying to walk him out there. I had him out there for about 15 minutes and had to put him back up, he was plunging and leaping and sky-bucking and he feels good. He's peaking at the right time, I feel like he's coming into this race just super. I haven't seen him take one step backwards."

And as long as the Belmont Stakes winner continues to improve, Ice plans to keep him around for a 4-year-old campaign.

"I don't want to jump to conclusions, but one thing I can say for sure is he'll be racing as a 4-year-old unless something happens," the trainer said. "He's a sound horse, there's no problems, he's happy in what he does, and he hasn't shown that he wants to quit. As long as he's happy in what he's doing, I don't want to take that away from him."

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.