Songbird returns to racing at Santa Anita on Saturday

Songbird, a burgeoning star on the horse racing landscape, returns to racing Saturday at Santa Anita for the Grade 2 $200,000 Summertime Oaks. It would be her eighth win in eight starts.

When trying to find words to describe her dominance, if her total margin of victory of 35 ½ lengths isn’t enough, you can turn to people whose job it is to call the races. They saw her brilliance from the start. Here’s what they said down the stretch (click on the date to watch the race).

July 26, 2015, maiden special weight at Del Mar, announcer Trevor Denman: “We could be looking at a future star here. Songbird magnificent looking, magnificent style, magnificent race horse.”

Sept. 5, 2015, Del Mar Debutante, Denman: “Songbird’s class is sticking out a mile. She’s just ex-uuuuud-ing class. Songbird and Mike Smith could not have been more impressive in the Del Mar Debutante.”

Sept. 26, 2015, Chandelier at Santa Anita, Denman: “The fact is Songbird is just too classy. It is Songbird, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, in another scintillating performance.”

Oct. 31, 2015, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland, the least impressive of the calls by Larry Collmus: “No threat to an undefeated champion filly, it’s Songbird. She did it with ease.”

Feb. 6, 2016, Las Virgenes at Santa Anita, Frank Mirahmadi. “Songbird is putting on a show for the Santa Anita fans. It is a privilege to watch. Mike Smith has been aboard some brilliant distaffers, and this is one of them.”

March 5, 2016, Santa Ysabel at Santa Anita, Michael Wrona: “It’s all Songbird. She has them beaten to a frazzle. How would you like to earn 60 grand as easily as this? Songbird wins by, well, whatever she felt like.”

April 9, 2016, Santa Anita Oaks, Wrona: “ Songbird is close to home. The result was a foregone conclusion a long way from home. Songbird soaring to ever greater heights, she’s now an Oaks winner.”

Shortly after the Santa Anita Oaks, Songbird contracted a fever and was pulled from racing, forcing her to miss the Kentucky Oaks. It wasn’t a serious ailment, but the always careful trainer Jerry Hollendorfer pulled her back. Hollendorfer and owner Rick Porter had been steadfast in nurturing the filly, also deciding not to run her against males at this point in her career. Many considered her the best 3-year-old, regardless of sex.

Her recent works have been excellent and she was declared fit for Saturday.

“She’s ready to run, she’s ready to roll,” jockey Smith said.

As Mirahmadi pointed out, Smith has great success with fillies and mares, the most notable being Zenyatta. Smith believes that Songbird is approaching star status with the fans, if she’s not already there.

“She’s blessed to continue as well as she’s doing and if she can continue on her winning streak, continue to get exposure, then more and more fans are going to want to see her,” Smith said. “But you’re not going to gain a lot of fans if you don’t keep winning. The better you do, the bigger the fans are.”

One thing that attract fans is anything that improves the chance of the bettors, and Joe Morris, senior vice president of West Coast Operations for the Stronach Group, is playing to that strength.

Morris, despite facing the track’s fourth minus show pool this year connected to the filly, is calling it “my Songbird promotion.”

“She’s got star power,” Morris said. “This filly is popular, We wanted to put the feature toward the end of the card, just where it is in the eighth race. The two races around it [full-field maiden races] should make for a challenging Pick-6 and Pick-4. We always want to keep fans around to stay and watch.”

When you have a horse like Songbird in a multiple-race bet, most players will “single” the race, meaning she would be the only pick in that race. If successful, it makes a Pick-6 more of a Pick-5.

Phil D’Amato, who is having a Songbird-like performance in the trainer standings this meet, is sending three fillies to challenge in the seven-horse, 1 1/16-mile race. Bellamentary is probably the most seasoned with three wins in five starts. He also has Coppa, undefeated in two starts, and Sutton’s Smile.

Best combo ever

The announcement this week that Russell Baze, the all-time winningest jockey, was retiring at age 57, brings to mind probably the most successful trainer-jockey combination ever: Hollendorfer and Baze.

“Not probably,” Hollendorfer shot back when asked about it.

The statistics tell the story. Since 1981, when equineline.com started keeping records, Baze has ridden 9,185 times for Hollendorfer, winning 2,893 races. He finished second 1,834 times and third on 1,315 occasions. This is a staggering 56% in the money. The average for all trainers is 39%.

“It’s the kind of thing that happens on the race track when a rider is attracted to a trainer who can win races and vice versa,” said Hollendorfer, who turns 70 on Saturday. “We developed a pretty good working relationship. We’re both hard workers. “

Baze’s career, mostly in Northern California, has been amazing by any measure. He started 53,578 races, winning 12,842. His total earnings were just short of $200 million.

Hollendorfer recalled when Baze’s longtime agent Ray Harris came to him and asked the veteran trainer why he was taking Baze off some of his horses.

“I asked him to name one horse,” Hollendorfer said. “Well, you never take Russell Baze off a horse and he couldn’t name one horse. The point is I never took him off a horse.”

New Sunday post

Santa Anita will abandon its 1:30 p.m. post time this Sunday and start racing at noon to avoid the expected triple-digit heat. The highest temperature is expected around 4 p.m.