By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — This is the only week that the Razorbacks’ opponent can be ignored in good conscience.
Eastern Michigan is on par with Missouri State, which was noteworthy mostly because it initiated the second season of Bobby Petrino and marked the debut of Ryan Mallett as the Razorback quarterback.
Acknowledgment of the Eagles from Ypislanti concluded, the decks are clear to wonder if a thoroughbred racing group with a high-falutin name is going to right a long-standing wrong.
This is about the Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association/American Graded Stakes Committee stamping the Arkansas Derby a Grade I when it meets in early December.
Oaklawn Park’s case for an upgrade was advanced from solid to indisputable by a horse owned by two doctors who emigrated from India in the mid-1960s and a trainer on his own for barely a year.
Summer Bird belongs to Kalarikkal Jayaraman, a retired cardiologist so hard on trainers that he once fired himself, and his wife, retired pathologist Vilasini Jayaraman. He was reluctant at first, but they got into racing at Oaklawn Park in the 1980s and still have a home in Hot Springs.
Third in the Arkansas Derby, Summer Bird made a national splash when he romped in the Belmont, the final leg of racing’s Triple Crown. His love affair with New York racetracks continued when he won the Travers Stakes and then beat older horses in the Gold Cup. Trained by Tim Ice, Summer Bird was the first since Easy Goer in 1989 to sweep those Grade I races.
Summer Bird’s string of successes tops the pyramid that rests on 2004 Arkansas Derby winner Smarty Jones, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and narrowly missed becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. If Summer Bird is named top 3-year-old male as expected, he will join Smarty Jones and Arkansas Derby winners Afleet Alex and Curlin.
The four Grade I prep races for 3-year-olds — Florida Derby, Santa Anita Derby, Wood Memorial, and Blue Grass — have produced a total of one 3-year-old champion, Big Brown in 2008.
Summer Bird could eliminate any Eclipse Award pretenders with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 7. That same day, 2008 Arkansas Derby winner Gayego, recently victorious in a major sprint race in California, will have an opportunity to trumpet the strength of the Oaklawn race when he competes in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
The 10-member committee with the grades to give is supposed to be big on depth of a race and its history. On both counts, Oaklawn Park’s premier race dwarfs those with the Grade I.
During the past six years, Arkansas Derby participants have won six Triple Crown races and finished in the money an additional six times. The Florida Derby is next with four winners and two others in the money.
Horsemen consider the Arkansas Derby a Grade I in every way except for the official proclamation and those with good 3-year-olds plan accordingly. Many members of the national media agree, including some who have lamented the committee’s stubborn slight.
If members of the Graded Stakes Committee are open-minded, Summer Bird should be the closing argument for a Grade I for the Arkansas Derby. If not, horses from the April 10 Derby will embarrass them throughout 2010.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
