ELMONT, N.Y. — Call it serendipity, fate or even dumb luck, but nothing beats being in the right place at the right time. And for trainer Tim Ice, Saturday was the right time, the moment he had pointed to for 15 years, the time he had worked to reach; all those mornings at Lone Star Park and Oaklawn Park and Louisiana Downs, those pre-dawn mornings when he was up with the first sparrow chirp and feeding at 5 o’clock, they all pointed to this. Yes, it was the right time; it was his 35th birthday.

And he celebrated by winning the Belmont Stakes with Summer Bird, an 11-1 outsider who persevered through the stretch to finish nearly three lengths ahead of Dunkirk. As for the more celebrated Bird who had won the Kentucky Derby, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mine That Bird finished third.
This 141st Belmont also provided jockey Kent Desormeaux with the right place and time to exorcise some unpleasant memories. Twice Desormeaux had lost the Belmont Stakes on overwhelming favorites who were going for a sweep of the Triple Crown series, with Real Quiet in 1998 and Big Brown last year.
Because of foot problems, Big Brown had missed some training prior to the Belmont. But after Desormeaux pulled up the colt, who didn’t seem to be responding to encouragement, at the top of the Belmont stretch, the jockey was vilified. He said the loss was like swallowing a spoon sideways.
The Real Quiet loss even more devastating because the colt led by four lengths in mid-stretch at Belmont Park only to get caught in the final stride and lose by a nose to Victory Gallop. Desormeaux said Real Quiet was gawking, looking around, losing focus, but the critics blamed the jockey for moving prematurely.
In a Hall of Fame career that includes three Kentucky Derby victories — Desormeaux also won the roses on Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000 — the Belmont Stakes was the gem that had eluded him. In a career that began in 1986 at small Louisiana racetracks n Louisiana and included more than 5,145 victories, the Belmont was the huge gaping hole.
But Saturday provided the right time and place to fill it.
“I can’t tell you how ... it feels to have that contentment and to be able to go home and rest at ease knowing I’ve won the three American classics,” the 39-year-old jockey said.
Summer Bird and Desormeaux saved ground until the middle of second turn, where they swung to the outside and began to gather momentum. Dunkirk, who led early through lively fractions, fought on gamely to the wire. Charitable Man, squeezed slightly in mid-stretch, dropped back. And Mine That Bird, who swept to the lead at the top of the stretch, failed to maintain his rally.
Mine That Bird and his jockey, Calvin Borel, had won the Derby by hugging the inside rail. But Mine That Bird was a little too eager Saturday, Borel said. And they moved four-wide in the second turn. If they had been able to wait, if they again had saved ground — well, it was the wrong place and time, and they finished a neck behind Dunkirk.
Summer Bird finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby, but skipped the Preakness, the second event in the Triple, to focus on the Belmont. And in winning Saturday, Summer Bird continued a trend: Eight of the last 10 Belmont winners did not run in the Preakness.
Ice said he had no specific plans for Summer Bird, whose Belmont was only the second victory and fifth start of his career. He finished third in the Arkansas Derby. Ice said the son of Birdstone soon would join his stable at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City.
“He’s still maturing, and, you know, he proved it today,” said Ice, who worked for years as an assistant to trainers Keith Desormeaux, Cole Norman and Morris Nicks before taking out his trainer’s license 15 months ago. “We did the right thing by skipping the Preakness and waiting on the Belmont and bringing him here early.”
He also did the right thing by adding blinkers—blue blinkers, to be specific. It was “surreal,” he said, to spot those blinkers advancing in the Belmont stretch, and as Summer Bird moved closer to the leaders and then to the front, Ice could hear only himself hollering louder and louder, filling up the right time and place with his own celebration.