Up With the Birds bids for compensation in Breeders' Stakes

He was a half-length short in the Queen's Plate, but Up With the Birds will

get a second chance at glory when he challenges nine rivals in Sunday's

C$500,000

Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine, the third jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.

At 1 1/2 miles, the Breeders' is the longest and only turf event of the

three-race series, which kicked off last month with a win by Midnight Aria in

the venerable 1 1/4-mile Plate on July 7 over Woodbine's Polytrack. Uncaptured

captured the second gem, the 1 3/16-mile Prince of Wales, over Fort Erie's dirt

strip on July 30.

The 123rd edition of the Breeders' is likely to be all about Up With the

Birds, who drew post 5 and was installed as the 6-5 favorite on Thursday to

collect the C$300,000 winners share.

The bay son of Stormy Atlantic, a Sam-Son Farms homebred, is the most

accomplished in the field with three stakes wins including one on turf and

$556,879 in career earnings. After the heart-breaking loss in the Plate, trainer

Malcolm Pierce freshened up Up With the Birds, deciding to skip the Prince of

Wales and focus on the Breeders'.

"He's had no reason for time off. I just felt it was the right thing to do by

the horse," Pierce said. "We decided to take a pass on the Prince of Wales and

point to the Breeders' and have a very fresh horse to go a mile and a half.

Hopefully our plan is the right plan and we'll know that by 5:30 on Sunday

afternoon, but I feel good going into the race and I expect him to show up."

The Plate still stings though, according to Pierce.

"It's a shame he didn't get going a little bit earlier in the Queen's Plate.

It was a crazy day where we had a lot of rain and it made the track very speed

favoring which hindered us and helped the winner. He just missed. He was

running."

Eurico Rosa da Silva, who has ridden him in all five of his Woodbine starts,

gets the ride in the Breeders'.

With a win in the Breeders', Sam-Son would hold the mark for most Breeders'

wins by an owner in the Triple Crown era. The stable is currently tied with

Kinghaven Farms and Windfields Farms with five.

Ready for the rich Breeders' battle is Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield,

who will enter 5-2 second choice Global Express, owned by My Meadowview Stable,

from post 3.

Global Express is a fresh face to the Triple Crown scene with only three

career starts, all in the last 10 weeks. The son of Street Sense recorded modest

results in his first races, both on Polytrack, but erupted with a fast 8

3/4-length score in his turf debut last month.

The fact that Attfield, who holds the record for most Breeders' wins by a

trainer with eight, will saddle the bay April foal for a 12-furlong race in his

fourth career start will be taken lightly by few. Luis Contreras, who tallied

the race with Pender Harbour in 2011, will get the call.

Pyrite Mountain (post 1, 6-1 in the morning line) returns to the Triple

Crown. The son of Silent Name skipped the Prince of Wales after finishing

seventh in the Queen's Plate. The two-time stakes winner has trained well over

turf prepping for the Breeders' for trainer Mark Frostad and Awesome Again

Racing Limited. Gary Boulanger makes his debut aboard the bay colt.

Frostad feels he's got the right horse for the Breeders'.

"This horse is probably better on turf than he is on any other surface," the

trainer said. "We got in a lot of trouble (in his first turf start), but what

convinced me that he's a good turf horse is the way he closed in that race when

he finally got loose. He closed a lot of ground in the stretch (when fourth at

Gulfstream Park on March 9). I think he'll be much better on the turf. He's

ready for this dash."

River Seven (post 9, 8-1) will be the only horse to participate in all three

Triple Crown events after finishing 10th in the Plate and an excellent

second-place effort behind Uncaptured in the Prince of Wales last time out. The

Johannesburg gelding makes his turf debut for jockey Jesse Campbell, trainer

Nick Gonzalez and owner Tucci Stables, who teamed up to win the Queen's Plate

with Midnight Aria.

The rest of the Breeders' field features Triple Crown newcomers. The most

interesting of the group is Scipio (post 2, 12-1), who will be saddled by Reade

Baker for Stronach Stables. Emma-Jayne Wilson, who guided the Orientate colt to

his first career win in a 1 1/16-mile race over Polytrack last time out, will

partner him in his grass debut.

Three sophomores are listed at 20-1 in the morning line. Bookies Nightmare

(post 7, jockey Davy Moran, trainer Carolyn Costigan), a maiden; Highland Bay

(post 4, Justin Stein, Denyse McClachrie) and Who's Mr. Hughes (post 10, Omar

Moreno, Mike Keogh) who was supplemented to the race for C$12,500, have all

shown strong recent efforts on turf.

Dragon Puff (post 8, Tyler Pizarro, Sam DiPasquale) and maiden Faithful Rose

(post 6, Richard Dos Ramos, Ricky Singh) are listed at 30-1 in the Breeders'

morning line.

It will be the 10th straight year without a Triple Crown champion in Canada.

Wando was last to achieve the impressive three-race sweep in 2003.

The race will be televised live on Sportsnet 360 in HD (High Definition) in a

special presentation from 4:30-5:30 p.m. (EDT). Post time is 5:10 p.m.

Three races earlier on the card, the Attfield-trained Forte Dei Marmi aims to

defend his title in the Grade 2, C$200,000

Sky

Classic at 1 1/4 miles on turf. The seven-year-old veteran just ran away

with the July 7 Singspiel here by 6 1/4 lengths over his young stablemate,

Perfect Timber. After rounding out the all-Attfield exacta last time in only his

fourth start, Perfect Timber takes on Forte Dei Marmi again on Sunday.

Dual Sovereign Award-winning filly Irish Mission adds intrigue. Last year's

Canadian champion three-year-old filly and turf female defeated males in the

2012 Breeders', and the Frostad trainee got back on the winning track when

trouncing allowance foes on July 24.

Four Sky Classic runners are exiting the about nine-furlong Nijinsky on July

21 -- Brian Lynch's duo of Hampstead Heath and Grand Arch, who were respectively

second and third; fourth-placer Classic Bryce; and Hotep, a subpar sixth.

Rounding out the field is Peyton, elevated to third via disqualification in

the August 3 Seagram Cup on the Polytrack in his latest.

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