HOLLYWOOD PARK : Is There Another Serena’s Song in the Landaluce?

There should be no wisecracks just because today’s Landaluce Stakes at Hollywood Park hasn’t come up particularly strong. Last year’s running didn’t look like much on paper, either, but it produced Serena’s Song and Cat’s Cradle, two of the best 3-year-old fillies in the country this year.

On today’s anniversary of her 4 1/2-length victory in the Landaluce, Serena’s Song will be at Belmont Park, running in the $250,000 Coaching Club American Oaks and trying to add to a $1.4-million bankroll.

Serena’s Song has won six of seven starts this year, the only blot on her record being the 16th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby after she led for a mile. She’s been an odds-on favorite in the last five races against fillies, and she’ll probably pay $2.10 if she wins today, just as she did after a three-length victory in the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont a month ago.

Golden Bri, the 5-1 second choice on Belmont’s morning line for today’s six-horse field, has never won a stake and was the weary second-place finisher in the Mother Goose. Trainers of Serena’s Song’s opponents are telling themselves that trainer Wayne Lukas’ filly might be vulnerable because of the 1 1/4 miles of the Oaks, the same distance as the Derby, but Gary Stevens, who has ridden her in the last two victories, isn’t expected to send her on a 45 4/5-second half-mile tear, such as she made under Corey Nakatani at Churchill Downs.

Others in today’s race are Forested, who was third, beaten by nine lengths, in the Mother Goose; Rogues Walk; Change for a Dollar and Very True.

Bob and Beverly Lewis of Newport Beach bought Serena’s Song as a yearling for $150,000. During this year’s Triple Crown, the Lewises referred to their filly as a “support mechanism.” They also own a one-third interest in the colt, Timber Country, and that’s been a roller-coaster ride, with a disappointing third-place finish in the Derby, an overdue victory in the Preakness and then a 103-degree fever that knocked him out of the Belmont Stakes on the eve of the race.

Serena’s Song’s victory in the Mother Goose came the day before the Belmont, and the day before the Preakness she won the Black Eyed Susan at Pimlico by nine lengths.

“That weekend at Pimlico was just exhilarating,” Bob Lewis said. “It would be very difficult to top something like that.”

On the other hand, Lewis believed he and his wife had further to fall than the other owners of Timber Country--William T. Young and Graham Beck--after they learned that the colt would have to be scratched from the Belmont.

“We had just had the elation of winning the Mother Goose when we learned that Timber Country had the temperature and wouldn’t run,” Lewis said.

After today, Serena’s Song will be sent upstate to Saratoga, where she might race one more time before running in the Alabama on Aug. 12. The year-end goal is the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, back at Belmont, on Oct. 28. Serena’s Song’s last loss within her own division came in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs, where a stablemate, Flanders, beat her by a neck. Flanders was injured, probably during the stretch run, and has been retired.

“Flanders isn’t the only one who’s broken down trying to beat Serena’s Song,” said Howard Baker, who bred the Lewises’ filly via a mating of Rahy and Imagining. “Serena’s Song does that to horses, forcing them to hurt themselves trying to beat her.”

The Lewises plan to run Serena’s Song next year as a 4-year-old.

“With horses, it’s always a race-to-race thing,” Bob Lewis said. “We’ve learned that since we’ve been in the game. But we have every intention of running Serena’s Song another year. She’s so sound. She loves to run. And she’s got a heart as big as all outdoors.”

Even if her career ended this minute, Serena’s Song would give this year’s Landaluce field something to live up to. How So Oiseau, despite finishing seventh in the 1994 Landaluce, might have also been a factor this year if she hadn’t been injured. She had won a stake against Serena’s Song at Del Mar in August and finished ahead of her in another race.

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Hollywood Park’s other stake for fillies this weekend, the $200,000 Hollywood Oaks on Sunday, is a rematch for Favored One, Our Summer Bid, Sleep Easy and Predicted Glory, who were the first four across the wire, in that order, in the Princess Stakes on June 18.

That day, Sleep Easy, who had won the Railbird in May, stumbled leaving the gate, was last after a half-mile and then rallied within four lengths at 1 1/16 miles. Favored One came from off the pace for trainer Mike Puhich, winning for the first time since September, when she was campaigning at Yakima Meadows.

For the 1 1/8-mile Hollywood Oaks, Sleep Easy, with Nakatani, has the inside post position. Outside her, in order, come Carsona, with Kent Desormeaux riding; Predicted Glory, Fernando Valenzuela; Our Summer Bid, Jose Silva; Bello Cielo, Eddie Delahoussaye; and Favored One, Alex Solis. They’ll all carry 121 pounds. Delahoussaye and Desormeaux have alternated winning the stake in the last four years, with Fowda, Pacific Squall, Hollywood Wildcat and Lakeway.

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Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens will remain in the East on Sunday, to ride Langfuhr at Woodbine in the 136th running of the Queen’s Plate, a $400,000 race. . . . The Coaching Club American Oaks is the finale to the New York triple for 3-year-old fillies that began with the Acorn and the Mother Goose. Cat’s Cradle, who won the Acorn, missed the Mother Goose because of a wrenched ankle. . . . Jumron, fourth while straining some muscles in the Kentucky Derby, may be back in action by the end of the Del Mar meet in September. . . . Rogues Walk, a New York-bred, was the first graded stakes winner for Angel Cordero, the Hall of Fame jockey who’s struggled since moving to training in 1992.