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Up With the Birds flies away in Marine

Last updated: 5/26/13 5:48 PM

Up With the Birds flies away in Marine

Up With the Birds took flight in the Marine

(WEG/Michael Burns Photography )

Sam-Son Farms' homebred Up With the Birds came flying from the back of the

five-horse field to win going away in Sunday's $163,681

Marine

Stakes at Woodbine.

The Malcolm Pierce pupil was eight lengths off the pace at the quarter-pole

as Drenched set fractions of :24 1/5, :47 2/5 and 1:11 1/5 before fading back to

last in the stretch.

Up With the Birds bided his time until he was was hustled wide on

the far turn and flew past the leader in the upper stretch to draw clear by 4

3/4 lengths.

With Eurico Da Silva in the saddle, the three-year-old colt stopped the clock

in 1:43 4/5 for the 1 1/16-mile contest over the Polytrack, and returned $4.40,

$2.40 and $2.10 to his backers as the 6-5 favorite.

"He handled everything so easy," Da Silva said. "He's a wonderful animal."

Winning Cause got up for second, a neck over third-place finisher Five Iron.

Ghost Hunter and Drenched were fourth and fifth respectively, while Silent

Admirer was scratched from the race.

Up With the Birds closed out his two-year-old campaign at Woodbine by taking

the Coronation Futurity on November 10. He kicked off 2013 with a win in the

Black Gold Stakes over Fair Grounds' turf course and was exiting a neck second

over the turf in the Transylvania at Keeneland just last month.

"He came into the race in good order and timing wise he's had plenty of space

between races," Pierce said. "Let's just keep our fingers crossed for six more

weeks."

Pierce will now train the bay into the C$1 million Queen's Plate, the first

jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, to be held on July 7 at Woodbine.

The son of Stormy Atlantic added $104,663 for his third stakes score to boost

his bankroll to $367,779 from a 6-4-1-1 career line.

Something Extra would not be denied a second-straight Connaught Cup victory

(WEG/Michael Burns Photography )

Later on the card at Woodbine, John Menary and trainer Gail Cox's Something Extra

wired the field in the Grade 2, $195,371

Connaught Cup just as he did in last year's running of the race.

The five-year-old gelding edged clear early, set a pressured pace and held on

in the stretch under a drive to win by three parts of a length. Something Extra covered

seven furlongs in 1:20 2/5 over the firm turf with Da Silva aboard.

"He's a nice horse and he's gotten better," Cox said. "It was a

really tough trip (in the Shakertown.) He had a wall of horses in front of him

and Julien (Leparoux) just couldn't get through. It was just bad luck."

Something Extra was coming off a nose second in the Shakertown over

Keeneland's turf course just last month. The dark bay now has a career line

which reads 21-7-6-4 and $581,128 in earnings.

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