Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Prince Arch: A Tough Act To Follow But Birdbird's Going to Try

Birdbird's owner Ray Cottrell Sr. is no stranger to the top echelon in racing.

A few years ago he owned a colt named, Prince Arch (Arch - Princess Kris, by Kris) who won the 2005 Gulfstream Park Handicap (now the Gulfstream Park Turf Stakes G1)and even traveled to Dubai for the Sheema Classic that year, In his three year old year the Prince took the Saranac at Saratoga (pictured above) and took down champion Kitten's Joy in the Jefferson Cup at Churchill Downs. Prince Arch also placed in the Virginia Derby and the Crown Royal American Turf, he is now at stud in Ireland.

Ray and Kenny McPeek have a similar goal in mind for his 2006 Delta Jackpot (G3) winner, Birdbirdistheword when the colt returns to the races this Saturday, eight months after being diagnosed with an injured left rear suspensory ligament which took the colt off the Derby trail in April.

Photobucket
Ray Cottrell Sr and Birdbird

Birdbird (8-3-0-0 $702,000) returns to the races in the grassy Pete Axthelm , named for the famed sportswriter, on the closing weekend at Calder. In his last published work last week, Birdbird worked 5f at Gulfstream in 1:00.00 handily,the best of 26 workouts at the distance.

Team Bird is looking for a top effort in a race that features some of best local three year olds in South Florida like Drums of Thunder who is also on the comeback trail and Craftmanship.

Of course I doubt if Drums of Thunder has his own ring tone.



So watch out, Birdbird is back and his main goal is the Gulfstream Turf Handicap (G1) on February 23rd.

2 comments:

dana said...

I thought Birdbird put in a nice return effort today... he came on well at the end.

Buy Horses said...

Yah you're right dana that's what I thought either.