Delay in workout doesn't bother Songbird

ARCADIA, Calif. – A 15-minute delay was no problem for Songbird on Wednesday at Santa Anita, where the 2015 champion 2-year-old filly posted her final major workout leading up to her first start of the year in the Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 6.

Songbird was scheduled to work seven furlongs at 6:45 a.m.; the work was postponed due to an injured horse at the clubhouse turn. Songbird took it all in stride. She jogged clockwise from the quarter pole to the eighth pole and stood still for several minutes while the injured horse was removed.

“She actually handled it really good,” jockey Mike Smith said. “It might have been a good exercise for her to go through to calm her down. Sometimes when she knows she’s going to work, she’ll get a little [excited].”

It was 7 a.m. when Songbird eased into the workout at the seven-eighths pole. Smith kept her far off the rail.

“I stayed out in the 5 path, where the ground is better,” he said. “The work was just as smooth as smooth can be. She just floated … all the way, the whole work.”

Visually, the filly’s workout was as impressive as any of her recent drills. The official time was 1:26.60 over a surface that produced slow times. Smith said Songbird was hardly blowing after the work.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Songbird went the final furlong in 12 seconds and did it “real smooth.”

Owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farms, Songbird won all four of her starts in 2015. Hollendorfer said she will have one final, short work Feb. 2, weather permitting. If rain interrupts workout plans, Hollendorfer said Songbird could gallop into the one-mile Las Virgenes.