Up With the Birds Ready for Canadian International

Sam-Son Farm’s homebred Up With the Birds, trained this year by Graham Motion, will be trying to become the sixth different Canadian-bred to win the $1-million Pattison Canadian International, and the first since Thornfield in 1999.

The five-year-old Stormy Atlantic fellow enjoyed a banner three-year-old season at Woodbine, when trained by Malcolm Pierce, which saw him win the Breeders’ Stakes on home turf and the Grade 1 Jamaica at Belmont Park en route to Sovereign Awards as Canada’s Horse of the Year and top three-year-old male.

On Saturday morning, Up With the Birds enjoyed a morning gallop with 20-year-old exercise rider Mary Motion, Graham’s niece.

“I've been working for Graham for just over a year now. I don't get to ride Up With the Birds too much at home as he's something of a barn favourite. He's a really cool horse,” said Motion of the popular Canadian-bred. “This morning we galloped him a mile and a half and just let him gallop out on the bridle and make sure he's feeling well. 

“He’s feeling pretty good. He took off bucking when he first started galloping so he seems pretty excited to be here,” continued Motion. 

Accompanying Up With the Birds on this trip is filly Eastern Belle who will contest Sunday’s Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes. The four-year-old daughter of Champs Elysees has reeled off four consecutive runner-up finishes in added-money events over the turf. She’ll look to go one better in Sunday’s 1 ¼-mile test.

“She's a nice filly. She can be a bit strong at home but she's classy and this morning was actually very good,” noted Motion of the early morning training session. “We galloped a mile and a half, nice and relaxed, and she is feeling great.

“I think she'll run well. She's been feeling good lately and each start she's been getting closer. I think she has a big run in her tomorrow.”

If both horses can run as well in the afternoon as they have in the morning for their young exercise rider, the Motion family could be in for a bumper day at the track.

“They both feel, if not the same, then even better than they did at home. I rode Eastern Belle the day before we left and she felt great, but she's really woken up since arriving here,” said Motion.

The $300,000 Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes, a six furlong turf sprint, appears to be a wide open contest with 11 runners ready to blast into battle over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.

Excaper, trained by Ian Black for owners Richard S. Kaster and Frederick C. Wieting, will be cutting back in distance from 1 1/16-miles to just three-quarters on Sunday while looking for his first win of the meet.

The fan favourite grey has raced prominently through six starts in 2015, mainly in graded events, never finishing more than 5 ½-lengths from the winner.  Last time out, in a grassy optional claiming tilt, Excaper set a swift pace and stayed on gamely to be third behind Money Talker and Za Approval.  The final time of that 1 1/16-mile event was a swift 1:39.90.

“In those longer races, we're just trying to get him an easy lead where he can be happy and maybe extend his speed a little bit,” explained assistant trainer Jeff Bowen. “Unfortunately, we kept hooking nice horses and it pretty much took a track record to beat him the last time.”

Excaper finished fourth in last year’s Nearctic when defeated just two lengths by Caspar Netscher.  Bowen feels the six-year-old gelding will appreciate the turn back in distance.

“Jumping back to six furlongs looks like a good spot for us and there's only one other speed horse in the race, so maybe we'll get lucky,” said Bowen. “We'll take the lead if they want to give it to us. If they want to give us a half-mile in :45, we're happy doing that.”

With a record of 5-9-2 from 28 career starts and in excess of $750,000 in purse earnings, the veteran grey is a popular resident at Barn 15 of the Woodbine backstretch.  He finished a game second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf back in 2011 and became a graded stakes winner last season when taking the Grade 2 Connaught Cup in a thrilling stretch duel with Something Extra.

“I'd take a barn full of horses like him,” said Bowen. “Excaper came along at a good time as we'd just lost Rahy's Attorney, Fifty Proof, Southdale and Stormy Lord within a few months of each other due to injuries and retirement and Excaper came along to carry the torch for us.”

A win in Sunday’s Nearctic would certainly be a dramatic way to earn his first ‘W’ of 2015.

“I'd love to see him end the year on a high note, he deserves it,” said Bowen. “He's run second to so many nice horses, it would be a nice payday for him.”

 

Environment Canada is calling for a mix of sun and cloud, with wind coming from the northwest at 20 km/h in the afternoon with an expected high of 6 degrees Celsius.

The Pick 4 wager on Pattison Canadian International day will carry an early guaranteed pool of $300,000 and a late guaranteed pool of $500,000, a total of $800,000 in guaranteed Pick 4 pools! Visit CanadianInternational.Com for FREE Past Performances and handicapping analysis from a variety of experts.

There are a million extra reasons to pay attention to Woodbine’s stakes events on October 18. A free-to-enter contest called the Woodbine Million Dollar Megapick asks Canadian racing fans (except the province of Quebec) to predict the exact order of finish for the entire field of the $500,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes and the $1 million Pattison Canadian International, both Grade 1 events, set for Sunday, October 18.

If someone predicts the correct first-to-last finish for any one of the two contest races, they’ll be looking at a million dollar payday.  If no one predicts the exact order of finish of either race, a consolation prize of $10,000 will be shared among the individuals who get closest to the exact winning order.  Visit Woodbineracetrack.com for contest details.

For those attending the Pattison Canadian International in person, arrive early to register for Your First Bet On Us. The first 2,500 fans will receive a limited edition scarf. 

The Pattison Canadian International will be broadcast live on TSN5 from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. ET.