Serena’s Song Does Not Miss a Step in Winning Santa Monica

Serena’s Song has given trainer Wayne Lukas another solid reason to rank her as his best horse ever. The 4-year-old filly had some built-in excuses before Saturday’s $156,800 Santa Monica Handicap, but none of them were needed after she survived a gritty stretch duel for a half-length victory over Exotic Wood.

“This filly’s special,” Lukas said after Serena’s Song handed Exotic Wood her first loss. “It’s not often that you’ll see a horse come out of the woodwork and win a Grade I going seven furlongs. In many ways, winning at seven-eighths off a layoff is tougher to do than other distances.

“She’s as good as I’ve had. I’m not sure that I could have thrown any of the others--the Lady’s Secrets, the Winning Colorses, the Open Minds--into this spot and they could have done what this filly has done.”

Being No. 1 on the Lukas list is the ultimate in status, because he has trained 18 champions, including two horse-of-the-year winners (Lady’s Secret and Criminal Type) and two Kentucky Derby winners (Winning Colors and Thunder Gulch).

Serena’s Song is one of those champions, having dominated the 3-year-old filly division last year, but for the Santa Monica she was running for the first time in three months and giving five pounds, 123 to 118, to Exotic Wood, who had already run at the Santa Anita meet and racked up the fastest seven-furlong time of the season. Serena’s Song matched that 1:21 2/5 time Saturday, after battling the speedy Klassy Kim through splits of :22 2/5, :44 4/5 and 1:08 4/5.

At the top of stretch, Klassy Kim and Eddie Delahoussaye hadn’t thrown in the towel, with Serena’s Song and Gary Stevens on the inside and Exotic Wood and Chris McCarron moving into position for their challenge from the outside. In midstretch, the hole tightened for Klassy Kim, and Delahoussaye stood up for an instant in the irons. A brief stewards’ inquiry into the incident left the finish unchanged. Klassy Kim finished third, beaten by five lengths, and a neck in front of the late-running Top Rung.

Serena’s Song, favored by only a few thousand dollars over Exotic Wood on the tote, paid $4.20. This was the 14th win in 24 starts for the filly that cost Bob and Beverly Lewis $150,000 as a yearling, and the $96,800 purse pushed her career total past the $2.2-million mark. One of the goals for the daughter of Rahy and Imagining is the $3.2-million earnings record for females, which is held by Dance Smartly. Probably next for Serena’s Song is the $200,000 La Canada Stakes, at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 11, and Lukas, not ruling out more matchups with males, whom she beat twice in races last year, has nominated her for the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap on March 2.

“If I thought it was in her best interests, I would not hesitate to run her against males again,” Lukas said. “With her, you look at any race and ask yourself if she could win, regardless of the gender line.”

For trainer Ron Ellis, there was a validation of what he knew all along: That Exotic Wood belonged in the ballpark with Serena’s Song, and that running beyond seven furlongs shouldn’t deter her.

“She was a maiden just five months ago,” Ellis said. “She ran great, and this will set her up to be stretched out. I didn’t expect Serena’s Song to get the rail trip that she got. It left us three-wide, but you’ve got to hand it to the winner. I was glad to see my filly rate. She’s got the class of a Serena’s Song.”

Exotic Wood, who’s also a daughter of Rahy, had won all five of her starts, the last three at the Santa Monica distance.

“She simply ran a terrific race,” McCarron said. “She relaxed, we were in good position, and she gave it everything she had. She just wasn’t quite good enough today, but she ran into a very special filly, a champion. I was very proud of the way she ran, and would love to get an opportunity to meet Serena’s Song again.”

Ellis wasn’t sure what Exotic Wood’s next race would be.

“This was a very tough race on her,” he said.

Stevens won two races with Serena’s Song when she was a 2-year-old, then succeeded Corey Nakatani after a 16th-place finish in last year’s Kentucky Derby and has been aboard for the last nine starts, six of them victories.

“She gives me goose bumps,” Stevens said. “You very seldom say that about a horse, but she gives me goose bumps every time. She had her mind on her business today. Wayne told me to leave [the gate] running. He told me to get her on her toes a little bit going to the gate, which I had never done before. I’d always tried to put her to sleep in the post parade for longer races. This time I was doing just the opposite, and I let her run a good quarter of a mile coming out of the gate. I was real satisfied going into the turn. McCarron wasn’t letting me or Klassy Kim get out of his sight. From the three-eighths pole home, it was a horse race.”

Stevens didn’t use his whip.

“I knew what I was sitting on,” he said. “There was no sense in hitting her because she’s going to give you everything she has. I had a few anxious moments at the eighth pole when Chris came up there and they were breathing down our necks. You always wonder how much reserve there is going to be, but Wayne did a fantastic job of having her ready.”

Delahoussaye was a new rider aboard Klassy Kim, having replaced the injured Goncalino Almeida.

“Both horses caused a little bit of the incident,” Delahoussaye said. “The other two finished well in front, but it was the principle of being bothered. I have no quarrel with the decision, but I definitely got bothered.”

*

Horse Racing Notes

With an 11 a.m. first post so the card will end before the start of today’s Super Bowl, Santa Anita is featuring the Santa Ynez Stakes. The 7-5 morning-line favorite, Hidden Lake, has never won in stakes company, but was second behind Advancing Star at Hollywood Park in November. Raw Gold, at 8-5, won the Landaluce as a 2-year-old and trainer David Hofmans’ filly could make it a banner weekend for the stallion Rahy if she won. . . . Wayne Lukas has won the Santa Monica six times. . . . This was Gary Stevens’ fourth win in the stake, one of them with Lukas’ Pine Tree Lane in 1988. . . . The probables for the $500,000 Strub Stakes next Sunday include Afternoon Deelites, Flying Chevron, Mighty Magee, Helmsman, Gold and Steel, The Key Rainbow, Pinfloron, Oncefortheroad, Mr Purple, Big Sky Jim and Score Quick.