Songbird targets Breeders' Cup Distaff after Cotillion win

Songbird, who remained unbeaten with an authoritative victory in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion at Parx on Saturday, was scheduled to be flown back to Southern California on Wednesday to begin preparing for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

Songbird ran her record to 11 for 11 with a 5 3/4-length victory over Carina Mia in the Cotillion. The race looked like a walk in the park for last year’s champion 2-year-old filly, and according to her connections, it was just that.

“After the race yesterday, she was blowing the equivalent to a morning gallop,” Christina Jelm, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s traveling assistant, said Sunday by phone from Parx. “We couldn’t keep her on the ground to get her in the barn. She was prancing, bucking, and squealing.”

Jelm said Songbird was scheduled to walk the shed twice a day at Parx from Sunday through Tuesday before leaving Wednesday morning with fellow Californians Nyquist and Cupid, who competed in the Pennsylvania Derby.

Owner Rick Porter and Hollendorfer both reiterated after the Cotillion that the Breeders’ Cup Distaff – and not a meeting against males in the $6 million BC Classic – was always the year-end target.

“It makes more sense to run against the girls,” Hollendorfer said in the Parx winner’s circle. “Even if she did win the Classic, it’s not going to add any more to her value than the Distaff would. If Rick wants to run her next year, he can try some other things. I’m sure we’ll agree to try and do something if we run next year. I think we’re trying to think in the smartest way in handling this filly.”

Songbird, who earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure in the Cotillion, could face champions Beholder and Stellar Wind, among others, in what could be a sensational showdown in the Distaff.

Two horses unlikely to run in the Distaff are Carina Mia and Cathryn Sophia, who finished second and third in the Cotillion.

Carina Mia, who also was second to Songbird in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga, shipped back to Saratoga on Saturday night. On Monday, trainer Bill Mott said the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint probably will be Carina Mia’s next start.

“There’s the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, which probably wouldn’t be on the top of my list, but it’s on the list, I suppose,” Mott said by phone from Saratoga. “You got the seven-eighths girls’ sprint, which would be high on the list, and also you got the Raven Run at Keeneland, which would be on the list. Good possibility she’d wind up in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Cathryn Sophia, the Kentucky Oaks winner, was probably the biggest disappointment in the Cotillion in that she was sitting in a good spot coming to the top of the stretch but came up empty in the stretch. She was beaten 12 1/2 lengths.

Owner Chuck Zacney said Sunday that he and trainer John Servis would get together by the weekend to discuss plans for Cathryn Sophia, who is cataloged to be sold at Fasig-Tipton November.

“We’ll figure it out the next couple of days,” Zacney said. “Maybe we’ll go in a direction other than the Breeders’ Cup, but I really don’t have any answers right now.”