11/10/2012 6:06PM

Woodbine: Up With the Birds proves best in Coronation Futurity

By Ron Gierkink
Email
Michael Burns
Up With the Birds, with Eurico Da Silva riding, wins the Coronation Futurity.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Up With the Birds mounted a powerful four-wide rally from sixth to win the $250,000 Coronation Futurity going away under a hand ride from Eurico Da Silva at Woodbine on Saturday.

Up With the Birds ($4.30) collared the favored Star Contender early in the stretch of the nine-furlong route for 2-year-olds, en route to a  3 1/2-length score in 1:51.13. Star Contender stalked a quick pace before finishing a clear second over His Race to Win, who, like Up With the Birds, is owned by Sam-Son Farm and trained by Malcolm Pierce.

"Malcolm had a lot of patience with this horse, and it paid off," said Da Silva. "We've been educating him for a long, long time. I had a lot of confidence in him. He was very kind. When I asked him, I had all kinds of horse."

Up With the Birds earned $150,000 while notching his first stakes in the race for Canadian-breds.  A son of Stormy Atlantic, he looks like a serious prospect for next year's Queen's Plate.