Serena’s Song Sung Blue Down the Stretch

Serena’s Song may be the best horse Wayne Lukas has trained, but she was no different Saturday than any of the other fillies and mares who have run in the Santa Anita Handicap.

She didn’t win. Ladies have now tried Santa Anita’s most famous race 40 times without success. Only four, in fact, have finished second or third.

Getting the kind of trip jockey Gary Stevens, Lukas and most handicappers envisioned--positioned a few lengths off a fast early pace--Serena’s Song, the queen of her sex, was right with the leaders a quarter of a mile from the finish, but nowhere to be found at the end.

Victorious in 15 of 26 lifetime starts, the 4-year-old daughter of Rahy checked in seventh in the field of 11, meaning she is winless in three attempts at 1 1/4 miles.

“She didn’t do anything to disappoint us,” Lukas said. “She ran her eyeballs out. It was a tough race and we knew that going in. She had some good ones in front of her and some good ones behind her. She had dead aim at the top of the stretch. We’ll look at the Apple Blossom [next month at Oaklawn Park] now.”

Of course, there will be some who will second-guess Lukas’ decision to go against the boys rather than wait for next Sunday’s $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap, where she would have been favored.

Lukas, who has seen his filly bounce back before after sound beatings, had no regrets.

“I don’t think it will have any bearing on the rest of her season,” he said. “Running we probably made a lot of fans and we probably didn’t lose too many.”

Gary Stevens didn’t lose any faith in Serena’s Song, who had won the Santa Monica and Santa Maria Handicaps in her first two starts of 1996. The Big ‘Cap was also her first defeat in seven starts at Santa Anita.

“I was all out at the quarter-pole,” Stevens said. “I knew the only way I could win was if myself and Afternoon Deelites [who had the lead at the time, but wound up sixth] ran 1-2. [Kent Desormeaux on Afternoon Deelites] and I were really laboring.

“She’s a real intelligent filly and when she feels herself tiring, she shuts herself down and takes care of herself. That’s basically what she did today. She just galloped [to the wire] from the sixteenth pole.”

Nor did Stevens think Serena’s Song would be worse for wear. Last year, she won the Black Eyed Susan by nine lengths 13 days after finishing 16th in the Kentucky Derby.

“She pulled up well and wasn’t any more exhausted than in her winning races,” he said.