Midnight Aria Wins Queen’s Plate

Brisnet:

Up With the Birds installed as 2-1 favorite in Queen's Plate

Sam-Son Farms' homebred Up With the Birds, a dominating winner of the May 26 Marine Stakes in his latest, ranks as the 2-1 favorite on the morning line for Sunday's 154th running of the C$1 million Queen's Plate. The Malcolm Pierce trainee will face 11 rivals in the 1 1/4-mile test for Canadian-breds at Woodbine, the first jewel of his nation's Triple Crown.

Up With the Birds, along with stablemate His Race to Win, will attempt to give storied Sam-Son its sixth victory in the Queen's Plate. A grandson of Canadian champion mare Wilderness Song, who was runner-up in the 1991 Queen's Plate, Up With the Birds is three-for-four at Woodbine.

After a troubled third in his career debut here last August, the Stormy Atlantic colt rolled to 3 1/2-length scores in a maiden as well as in the Coronation Futurity. Up With the Birds switched to turf for his first two outings of 2013, winning the Black Gold at Fair Grounds and missing by a neck in the Transylvania at Keeneland. In his return to Woodbine in the Marine, he posted his most emphatic victory so far, drawing off by 4 3/4 lengths. Up With the Birds is well drawn in post 7, and keeps Eurico Da Silva in the irons.

His Race to Win, also by Stormy Atlantic, comes from the all-star family of U.S. and Canadian Hall of Famer Dance Smartly, who beat Wilderness Song in that 1991 Plate. Although only third to Up With the Birds in the Coronation Futurity as a maiden, he has the look of an improving type, and he was just nailed by Dynamic Sky in the June 9 Plate Trial. The second-stringer has plenty of upside at 10-1, and picks up the services of Hall of Famer John Velazquez, but must overcome the 11 post.

Woodbine Oaks queen Nipissing aims to become the sixth to follow up with a victory in the Queen's Plate. By 2004 Plate hero Niigon, and a Chiefswood Stables homebred like her sire, the Rachel Halden filly has been pegged as the 7-2 second choice. She went unbeaten at two, including tallies in the Princess Elizabeth and South Ocean, but got off to a subpar beginning at three when sixth in the Ashland at Keeneland.

Nipissing started to regroup with a runner-up effort in the Selene back at Woodbine, and officially turned the corner with a good-looking win over Spring in the Air in the June 9 Woodbine Oaks. She negotiated 1 1/8 Polytrack miles in 1:50.34, faster than Dynamic Sky's 1:50.59 for the Plate Trial on the same day. Regular rider Steven Bahen will guide Nipissing from post 9.

Trainer Mark Casse will send out a quartet in search of his first Plate win, headed by Dynamic Sky and Spring in the Air, both owned by John C. Oxley. Dynamic Sky was once a Kentucky Derby hopeful before disappointing this spring. The Sky Mesa colt was a useful juvenile, capturing the Simcoe at Woodbine and finishing second in the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, but wound up sixth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Responding to first-time blinkers, Dynamic Sky rebounded with a score in the Pasco at Tampa Bay Downs, and rallied boldly for second in the Sam F. Davis.

Then Dynamic Sky lost his way with a fourth in the Tampa Bay Derby and an even more disappointing ninth in the Blue Grass, and was accordingly pulled off the Derby trail. Dropped into restricted company and cutting back in trip for the Queenston at Woodbine, he closed for third. Casse removed the blinkers for the Plate Trial, and Dynamic Sky regained the winning thread with a late flourish. Joel Rosario, in the midst of a career year, stays aboard the 4-1 chance, who projects a ground-saving trip from post 2.

Spring in the Air was last season's Canadian champion two-year-old filly, with her highlight being a victory in the Alcibiades at Keeneland. She has won only once since then, in the seven-furlong Fury two starts back, and must find a way to overturn the Woodbine Oaks form with Nipissing.

Rounding out Casse's posse are Jagger M and Kaigun, respectively sixth and seventh behind Dynamic Sky in the Plate Trial.

Nick Gonzalez's pair of Midnight Aria and River Seven are likewise exiting the Plate Trial. Pace factor Midnight Aria held third, while River Seven, last year's Grey winner, checked in eighth after stumbling badly at the start. They will bookend the Queen's Plate field, with Midnight Aria on the rail and River Seven in post 12.

Mark Frostad is also double-handed with Pyrite Mountain and County Lineman, both sons of Silent Name. Pyrite Mountain has by far the better credentials, having won last December's Kingarvie and the May 5 Wando, where he defeated Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured and Plate rival Midnight Aria. He comes off a fourth as the 5-2 favorite in the Plate Trial. County Lineman, on the other hand, makes an ambitious stakes debut off a distant third in an allowance.

Rackman, a rank outsider, finally broke his maiden with a dead-heat verdict in his ninth attempt.