Up With the Birds targets Sycamore
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Up With the Birds ran second in last year’s Grade 1 Canadian International, but the 6-year-old is not among the probables for Sunday’s edition. Trainer Malcolm Pierce said Up With the Birds is being pointed toward the Grade 3, $100,000 Sycamore Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on turf at Keeneland on Oct. 20.
“We’ve nominated him to the Sycamore,” he said. “It sounds like the International is coming up pretty tough, with some Europeans and Americans coming, and the local horses aren’t too bad. We’ve pretty much made a decision to take a pass on the International this year.”
Up With the Birds would head to Keeneland off a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Durham Cup Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on Tapeta on Sept. 24. Pierce said he was pleased with the effort.
“It wasn’t a bad race,” he said. “It’s the first time he’s run on the synthetic since the Queen’s Plate, if I can remember correctly. He didn’t run bad.”
Pierce said Up With the Birds has come out of the Durham Cup in good order; he returned to the work tab with a five-furlong breeze in 1:00.80 on the dirt training track Sunday.