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SHERRILL WARD Trainer and de ¬ veloper of Summer Tan Summer Jan Has Good Chance Of Coming Back Says Trainer j j j j Sherrill Ward Going Along Slowly With Galbreath Colt In Preparations at Belmont BelmontBy By BOB HORWOOD HORWOODELMONT ELMONT L I N Y May 2 I have to think Summer Tan has at least as much chance of coming back at his best as any horse in this barn anyway trainer Sher ¬ rill Ward said slowly and deliberately this morning walking down the long shed of barn 9 at Belmont toward the Heliopolis fouryearolds stall stallSummer Summer Tan who recently returned to serious training after having been sidelined since last years Kentucky Derby has fin ¬ ished cooling out after galloping once around the mile and a half main track and his groom was putting the final touches to doing him up for the day dayCome Come in so you can get a real look at him Ward invited and you step into the deep straw beside the big bay colt who stands like a gentleman as his groom lov ¬ ingly wipes the gleaming coat like a house ¬ wife giving that final extra rub to an al ¬ ready gleaming mahogany table Not hav ¬ ing seen Summer Tan in more than a year you remark with some surprise that he seems almost ready for the races racesUnder Under Saddle Since January JanuaryWell Well hes been under saddle at my brothers place in Kentucky since Janu ¬ ary the young trainer remarks but adds If we could look inside we could probably see that hes not ready yet Having been away so long hes bound to still be a little soft in there though he does look good Hes been breezing regularly now though not too fast fastOriginal Original plans called for Summer Tan to begin his comeback during the Saratoga meeting but Ward thinks now that he will be ready quite a bit before that possibly before the end of the long Belmont Park meeting that opens on May 14 He made it clear that he has no intention of rushing Mrs John W Galbreaths colt not after having waited a full year with him himThis This of course will not be the first comeback for Summer Tan Soon after his arrival at Hialeah two winters ago on tbe threshold of his threeyearold campaign the coif who had beaten Nashua in the Cowdin and given him bitterly hard races in the Juvenile Hopeful and Futurity came down with an acute intestinal embolism of a severity that would have been fatal to most horses as similar attacks were to Mrs Dorothy Pershalls Simmy last year and to Hasty House Farms promising Hasty Charger a few days ago agoWith With the help oi Dr William O Reed Waid brought Summer Tan back from the verge of death to win his first start at Jamaica last spring with the greatest of ease He then met Nashua again in the Wood Memorial and had trained so bril lia tly that he was favored over the colt who had beaten him in three out of four previous meetings Until the vciy last stride of the ninefurlong Wood in which Sum ¬ mer Tan set all his own pace this judg ¬ ment appeared to be justified but Ted Atkinson literally terrified Nashua with his whip in the last two jumps after having handridden from the furlong pole and the son of Nasrullah stormed past the courageous but weary Summer Tan to tri ¬ umph by a neck after one of the most pal ¬ pitating races of the decade Summer Tans ankles began to trouble him almost immediately after the Wood and trainer Ward has said since that he was of two minds whether or not to start him in the Derby until the day of the race Discussing those trying days one morning last fall Ward said I know now that it was a mistake to run in the Derby and it was my mistake not Mrs Galbreaths She left the decision entirely to me But at the time I didnt know There were days wlfen it seemed best not to run then the next day he would go so well it seemed foolish not to Ankles Show Marks of Firing Iron IronThose Those ankles still show the marks of the firing iron but they are not abnormally large and they are cold Ward who is con ¬ siderably more candid than many trainers in discussing his charges this morning vol ¬ unteered the information that Summer Tan had popped a splint while at brother John Wards farm in December which had also been fired You can still see it if you look close he remarked but I dont think its going to trouble him now nowWhile While Summer Tan is the star of barn 9 Ward has a trio of threeyearolds in his care who may yet become important fac ¬ tors in this division They are Mrs C Ul rick Bays Greek Spy Mrs Galbreaths filly Jody Belle and the colt Night In ¬ truder who will carry Mr Galbreaths Darby Dan Farm silks Greek Spy a strapping son of Greek Song who was narrowly beaten by Oh Johnny in the Fountain of Youth Handicap at Gulf stream Park became sick a few days after that race and was forced to pass up the Florida Derby Now fully recovered Greek Spy is about ready to return to the races and may be seen in the Withers and Preakness He was improving rapidly be ¬ fore his illness and now has all the out ¬ ward look of a classic colt including a rather plain rather than pretty head headJody Jody Belle a daughter of Nasrullah from Risque Rouge finished second in her only start in Florida and gives promise of being a good one though Ward says frankly that she is not too sound If she continues to stand I think shell be heard from Ward says hopefully hopefullyNight Night Intruder is a black son of War Relic from Dark Imp by The Porter won only one of his 17 starts last year but gives an impression of tremendous power He was sent to Ward by H F Krimendahl last fall and the trainer says saysI I soon told him to take him back to the farm because his ankles were bother ¬ ing him but I liked him and when Mr Galbreath wanted to buy a coming three yearold I recommended that he take this one He seemed to me a colt who would improve and I think that he has
