by Brett Sturman, for VIP Stable

Piscataway, NJ — “Summer Camp and Andy Miller, what an effort here. Summer Camp, a giant mile,” exclaimed Meadowlands track announcer Ken Warkentin during a May non-winners of two conditioned race last spring.

While only a lower conditioned race, Summer Camp was able to overcome a difficult trip to hold off a late closing Valentino in 1:51.3. Just two months later, Valentino went go on to finish third in the Meadowlands Pace final, so it became clear that Summer Camp was sitting on a tremendous amount of raw talent.

Lisa photo

Summer Camp was a 1:49.3 winner in the Escort Series Final at Meadowlands Racetrack.

Co-owned by Baron Racing Stable and VIP Internet Stable, Summer Camp reached the winner’s circle nine times in 23 starts in 2010, earning $83,125. The road to success for Summer Camp and those closest to him has often been a bumpy one, however, featuring a number of bobbles and breaks en route to his late sophomore season success.

Having made breaks in five starts earlier last year, Summer Camp also made a break at the start of the opening leg of the Escort series at the Meadowlands on Oct. 30. After spotting the field considerable ground, Summer Camp would gather himself together to fly late and just miss by a nose. Now looking much better gaited on the track, Summer Camp’s trainer Josh Green describes the horse as coming into his own.

“I think a lot of it is that he has matured,” said Green. “As a lot of horses go from their 3-year-old year to their 4-year-old season they tend to get stronger, they can mature out of a lot of things. One of those things includes being rough; I think it’s been more of that than anything we’ve done.”

Since the opening leg of the Escort series, Summer Camp is a perfect four for four. The streak includes capturing the Escort final at the Meadowlands in 1:49.3 on a cold November night where he endured heavy front end pressure throughout, cut fractions of :54.1 and 1:22, and still had more than enough left in the tank to come home in :27.3.

While Green has been very pleased with the horse’s progress since entering his barn at the end of October, he credits the trainer who bought, broke and previously trained Summer Camp.

“John (Butenschoen) had him before I did,” said Green. “He (Summer Camp) actually had won in his start right before I got him. Even when I got him I think he was already heading in that direction; we just continued on from John’s work with him.”

By virtue of his 1:49.3 Escort series win when last seen at the Meadowlands, and a subsequent pair of 1:51 and change miles at Dover against older conditioned horses, Summer Camp has stamped himself as one of the favorites for the Clyde Hirt series beginning this Friday night (Jan. 14) at the Meadowlands.

On Friday, not only does Summer Camp land the farthest outside post position (nine), but his division of the Hirt will also include a very serious threat from the Ron Burke trainee, Meirs Hanover. Although Summer Camp got the better of Meirs Hanover in the Escort final, that one is exiting a race at Harrah’s Chester in which he was only a neck away from dethroning the undefeated 20 for 20 St Elmo Hero.

When asked if he felt Summer Camp would make a good account for himself in the upcoming series, Green responded, “I think so. He has very high speed and he is able to carry his speed. Horses that can do that tend to be successful.

“He’s in a couple different series and they get tougher as they go, so we’ll just take it week by week at a time. We’ll go through the series and then I think that he’ll be a good fit at Dover or elsewhere in the Winners Over, Open type ranks if he continues to progress.”

Wherever Summer Camp’s success takes him in the future, the ride to get there should at least be a smooth one.