Fire On Ice Almost Ready to Run

A year ago, Fire On Ice made one of the more impressive debuts at Saratoga , romping to a 10 ½-length victory on Travers Day. It would be the Unbridled’s Song colt’s only start of 2011, as he later suffered a condylar fracture in his right hind leg while training for the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont.

The 3-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song signaled his readiness for a return to racing, breezing five furlongs on Wednesday in 1:00.58, his fifth work at the distance since he resumed training in June at Belmont Park .

“I was very pleased with the way he went,” said trainer John Kimmel of the gray colt, purchased privately by Frank Stronach from Kimmel and Eli Gindi last September. “I’ve been trying to breeze him in company but no one can keep up with him. He’s been doing very, very well.”

The trainer said Fire On Ice likely will come back shortly after racing moves to Belmont on September 8.

Fire On Ice, who sold for $160,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s July Selected Yearlings sale and was a $170,000 buy-back at Keeneland’s Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale, is the third foal and first winner out of Lost in the Storm, an unraced half-sister to 2001 champion sprinter Squirtle Squirt.