Up With the Birds set to continue Japan Cup preparations
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The 2013 Canadian Horse of the Year Up With the Birds has arrived in Japan ahead of his engagement in the Group 1 Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 30, trainer Malcolm Pierce said Sunday.
Up With the Birds began his journey to Japan on Friday, leaving Woodbine by van for Chicago in order to make his flight to Tokyo, which departed early Saturday afternoon. Up With the Birds arrived in Japan on Sunday after a 15-hour flight which included a stop in Anchorage, Alaska.
“I talked to my guys earlier this morning, and he’s there and everything is good so far,” Pierce said on Sunday.
Pierce said Up With the Birds would be stabled in a quarantine barn until next Saturday. He was to resume training on Tuesday and will gallop into the race, Pierce said.
Up With the Birds has done his training for the Japan Cup at Woodbine, most recently breezing four furlongs in 47.20 seconds on the dirt training track Nov. 9. Pierce said he was looking for a strong work from Up With the Birds before his travel.
“We got lucky,” he said. “I had nobody to work with him and some horse broke off five lengths in front of him, which really piqued his interest. He chased that horse down and ran by it in the stretch.”
Pierce stable to Palm Meadows
For the past 11 winters, Pierce has called the Fair Grounds and New Orleans home, but that will all change this winter. Pierce said he will be moving his stable to Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida to race at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs.
“We’ve taken some stalls at Palm Meadows for the winter,” he said. “The first load of horses are going to leave Monday morning for there. We’ll race mostly at Gulfstream and a few little stakes over at Tampa. They have a pretty nice turf course.”
Pierce said weather and the condition of the turf course at the Fair Grounds over the past couple of seasons led to his decision to make the move east this winter.
“The last two winters [at Fair Grounds] have been very frustrating,” he said. “We scratched a lot of horses because the races have come off of the turf in New Orleans. I think they were having some trouble with the drainage on their turf course. I was frustrated and the owners were frustrated about not getting to run when we wanted to run in New Orleans.”