Songbird's owner opposed to running in Kentucky Derby

ARCADIA, Calif. - Songbird was so far in front in the last furlong of the $300,345 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday that she was practically galloping on the lead.

The champion 2-year-old filly of 2015, Songbird extended her unbeaten record to five races with an easy win by 6 1/2 lengths in the one-mile race. The margin could easily have been measured in double-digits if jockey Mike Smith had urged Songbird in any capacity in the final furlong.

“It’s quite amazing that she can do that,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Sunday morning.

Hollendorfer described Songbird’s condition as being “as close to perfect as she can be” the day after the race.

Songbird has won five starts by a combined 28 1/2 lengths. The closest her rivals have been to her at the finish occurred in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland in October when she won by only 4 1/2 lengths over the highly regarded Rachels Valentina.

The next objective for Songbird is likely to be the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on April 9, the final California prep for the $1 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 6.

“If everything goes perfect, we’ll look at that as our main race,” Hollendorfer said.

“She’s a morale booster. She’s the stable star. When she wins, everyone feels good.”

Owner Rick Porter stressed on Saturday that he has no interest in starting Songbird in the Kentucky Derby on May 7, or any of the leading prep races against males in the next few months.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Porter said in the winner’s circle. “It would be nice to win the Kentucky Derby. I’d like to do it with a 3-year-old colt, if I can get one.”

Porter said he is not in favor of the current point structure to qualify for the Kentucky Derby that requires starts in prep races against males in the months leading to the race.

“I’d have to run against the boys in the Santa Anita Derby,” he said. “She’s too young. It’s 20 horses in the race.”

Songbird was one of two Grade 1 winners in the Las Virgenes field along with Street Fancy, who won the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos in December. Street Fancy finished last of six in the Las Virgenes after striking her head on the gate moments before the start.

Trainer Phil D’Amato said Street Fancy was dazed by the incident, but was not injured and did not bleed from the lungs.

“You could hear about 10 seconds before the gate opened, a big zonk,” D’Amato said on Sunday. “As good as she was in her previous three races, you have to draw line through that race. I know my filly didn’t fire. I was afraid we’d scope her and find that she bled. She scoped clean.”