By Alan Carasso
Fox Hill Farm's champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) looks to take her career record to a perfect 10-for-10 and will attempt to join an elite group of fillies as the long odds-on favorite in Saturday's GI Alabama S. at Saratoga.
Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, who sent out eventual 3-year-old filly champion Blind Luck (Pollard's Vision) to best Fox Hill's Havre de Grace (Saint Liam) in the 2010 renewal of this storied event, the 'TDN Rising Star' ran the table in her four tries last term, clinching her title with a decisive front-running success in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland. She ran her winning streak to seven with an authoritative success in the GI Santa Anita Oaks Apr. 9 and would have been everyone's choice to add the GI Kentucky Oaks, but an elevated temperature ruled her out of the fillies' centerpiece. Returning from that 70-day hiatus with a galloping score in the GII Summertime Oaks June 18, she was tested really and truly for the first time in this track's GI CCA Oaks July 24, but took 'TDN Rising Star' Carina Mia (Malibu Moon)'s best shot and kicked home to score by 5 1/4 lengths. Champions like Open Mind and Go For Wand added the Alabama in their sophomore season, but the feat has not been accomplished since Silverbulletday (Silver Deputy) in 1999. Despite trying 10 panels for the first time, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer enters the Alabama full of confidence, same as he had six years ago with Blind Luck.
“Their styles of running are completely different, but they both had the Gogd-given talent to be great racehorses,” he said. “Songbird could have any style of running that she wants, and I think we're ready to go a mile and a quarter.”
With the bullseye on her back, it will be interesting to how Songbird is ridden, given that there appears to be enough speed to her inside in the event Mike Smith opts for a stalking trip. Go Maggie Go (Ghostzapper) raced close enough to a sharp pace when besting future Grade I winners Paola Queen (Flatter) and Off the Tracks (Curlin) in the Apr. 2 GII Gulfstream Park Oaks off just a maiden win, and more or less made all the running–albeit through much softer splits–in the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. two starts later. The homebred exits a fourth behind Carina Mia in the GI Acorn S. June 11, but has been training well and should appreciate Saturday's trip.
Family Tree (Smart Strike) has risen through the grades over the last 60 days, attending a strong tempo when proving two lengths too good in the GIII Iowa Oaks June 30, then sprinting home strongly off more tepid fractions to take out the GII Indiana Oaks by three lengths 16 days later.
Weep No More (Mineshaft), a “true mile-and-a-quarter” horse in the eyes of trainer Rusty Arnold, will hope for a contentious pace and will look to produce the same sort of finishing kick that saw her upset Keeneland's GI Ashland S. at 30-1 this past April. An even seventh in the Kentucky Oaks, she never reached contention in the CCA Oaks, finishing better than 11 lengths behind Songbird in fifth.
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