Wilderness Song, Canadian champion, dead at 23

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wilderness Song, Canada’s champion older female in 1992 and a Grade 1 stakes winner of more than $1.4 million, is dead at age 23.

Owned and bred by Sam-Son Farm, Wilderness Song spent much of her career racing in the shadow of her superstar stablemate, Dance Smartly, particularly when finishing second to her in both the Woodbine Oaks and Queen’s Plate.

Wilderness Song still managed to knock out 10 stakes winners in her career, however, with the 1991 running of the Grade 1 Spinster her most important success.

Her other stakes wins south of the border included the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher, the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Breeders’ Cup Handicap, the Grade 3 Monmouth Breeders’ Cup Handicap, and the Pimlico Distaff.

Her Canadian stakes wins included the Grade 3 Mazarine and the Princess Elizabeth, Bison City, Fury, and Belle Mahone.

Wilderness Song retired n 1994 with a record of 15 wins, 12 seconds, and 1 thirds from 37 starts and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2008.

As a broodmare, her produce included the stakes-placed Go to the Sun and Giant’s Tomb.

Wilderness Song has been buriedalongside Dance Smartly on the Sam-Son property in Milton, Ontario.