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.

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.