Up With the Birds back with Pierce

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Up With the Birds, the 2013 Canadian Horse of the Year, is back with his original trainer, Malcolm Pierce, after being trained by Graham Motion since the start of his 2015 campaign.

Up With the Birds breezed four furlongs on the turf training track here July 1 in his first work back with Pierce and is preparing for the Grade 2, $200,000 Nijinsky Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on turf July 24. Up With the Birds won the 2014 Nijinsky Stakes with a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. Since then, the horse has lost 12 consecutive starts, all in graded stakes, including a sixth-place finish last out in the Belmont Gold Cup on June 10.

“It went very well,” Pierce said of the breeze. “He’s never been a very good work horse, but I was very pleased with his breeze.”

Pierce said he believes Up With the Birds is enjoying his time back at Woodbine.

“I think he was really happy to come back here,” he said. “We obviously know he likes this turf course, with the long stretch. Hopefully, we can get him back in the winner’s circle before too long.”

Pierce said a long-term goal for Up With the Birds could be a return engagement in the Grade 1 Canadian International in October. Up With the Birds ran second to Cannock Chase in last year’s Canadian International.

“If we get on a positive note and we can get him to winning again, obviously the Canadian International would be the ultimate goal,” he said.