When Songbird was declared out of the Kentucky Oaks due to a minor illness, there was a sense of anticipation for her return as Cathryn Sophia emerged victorious on the first Friday in May. The $400,000 Fasig-Tipton graduate returned to the work tab on May 22 and prepared for the second half of her three-year old campaign with four workouts in preparation for the Summertime Oaks. Songbird showed no signs of rust, crushing the field of five to give trainer Jerry Hollendorfer a glorious win on his  70th birthday.

The filly by Medaglia d’Oro responded to rating tactics by jockey Mike Smith as she elected to sit second about a length behind pacesetter Bellamentary, who established quick fractions of :22.97 and :45.95. Those two opened up a three-length lead on nearest pursuer Sutton’s Smile.

Reaching the far turn, Songbird began to separate herself from the rest of the field, opening up a two-length lead after six furlongs in 1:10.28. The crowd of 7,823 cheered as Mike Smith stood motionless atop the filly, who galloped to a 6 ½ length victory in a final time of 1:42.63.

“I knew she was going to fire today. I just tried to stay out of her way. She has wings on her hooves, I swear. She just goes into stealth mode,” jockey Mike Smith commented on Songbird’s performance.

Songbird Mike Smith

The pacesetter Bellamentary held on by a nose to finish second over Kay Kay. But, as track announcer Michael Wrona said in his call, her rivals were “chasing shadows.”

Now undefeated from eight starts with total earnings of $2,102,000, the Jerry Hollendorfer trainee looks to take on some more rivals, but her connections have not expressed interest in taking on the boys just yet. “I don’t know about the Haskell,” said Hollendorfer. “Mr. Porter likes having input on these things, so we’ll talk it over and make a plan, see what happens. I wouldn’t think we’d go to the Haskell but there are plenty of races for her and we’ve talked about several of them.”

As for the summer, Songbird will travel east to take on Gr.1 Acorn winner Carina Mia and Gr.1 Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia in the prestigious Coaching Club American Oaks and/or Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. Known as the “Graveyard of Champions,” Saratoga has seen legends fall short at the wire, most recently when Keen Ice edged out Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in last year’s Travers Stakes. But the undefeated filly will attempt to keep her record intact out East, and Mike Smith plans to make no changes. “She has such a high cruising speed and what she does comfortably, other horses seem to have to work to do. I’m certainly not going to take that away from her.”

By: Christopher Ado

Photo: © EverythingEQ.com / Amanda Murphy