Serena’s Song Not Quite a Hit in Longer Race

Serena’s Song’s weakness has been discovered. The nation’s top 3-year-old filly doesn’t really want to run 1 1/4 miles.

The excuse at the Kentucky Derby was the pace was too fast when she finished 16th in her first try at the distance, but there were no excuses when she was upset by Golden Bri in the $250,000 Coaching Club American Oaks on Saturday at Belmont Park.

The 1-5 favorite against five opponents, Serena’s Song, who had won six of seven this year, tracked the moderate pace set by longshots Forested and Rogues Walk, got the lead before six furlongs had been run, but was worn down late by Golden Bri and lost by half a length.

Second by three lengths to Serena’s Song in the Mother Goose a month earlier at Belmont, Golden Bri won for the fifth time in 11 starts. She completed the distance in 2:03 4/5 with the last quarter-mile being negotiated in a lackluster 26 2/5 seconds.

Successful at four different tracks this year, Serena’s Song may also be feeling the effects of a rigorous campaign.

“When she came back she was corded up. You could see the ripples down her spine,” said jockey Gary Stevens. “That’s the sign of a tired horse. She’s won five Grade I’s, and she’ll be back to win some more.

“The mile and a quarter is a little suspect for her anyway. A mile and a sixteenth or a mile and an eighth today, and she would have gotten the job done.”

Trainer Wayne Lukas didn’t make any excuses.

“We just got beat today,” he said. “The fractions were all right [24, 47 4/5, 1:12 and 1:37 2/5 for the mile]. I don’t think it was the mile and a quarter, and I can’t blame the heat and humidity.

“She just didn’t kick. I could see it in the stretch. She was in the position to win, but she just didn’t fire this time. They all get beat some day--this was her day.”

It was the first stakes victory for Golden Bri, owned by Hilmer Schmidt, trained by John Kimmel and ridden by Jose Santos. She had begun her career in a maiden claimer last summer at Saratoga.

“Going into the race, I thought I would be happy with second,” Kimmel said. “In my opinion, Serena’s Song looked better today than she did in the [June 9] Mother Goose. Her coat was shinier and everything. But I thought with the further distance we would have a better chance of beating her.”

Golden Bri paid $17 as the 7-1 third choice. Change Fora Dollar finished third, eight lengths behind Serena’s Song, and she was followed by Very True, Rogues Walk and Forested.

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For only the second time in the last nine years, a trainer not named Brian Mayberry or Wayne Lukas won the Landaluce, Hollywood Park’s main event for 2-year-old fillies.

Aside from Don Harper’s victory with Dominant Dancer in 1989, the Grade II race has been owned recently by Mayberry (five victories) and Lukas (two), but Dave Hofmans broke through when Raw Gold led all the way to score in 1:10 3/5 for the six furlongs.

Giving Rahy his second consecutive success in the race--he also sired 1994 Landaluce heroine Serena’s Song--Raw Gold put away Ebony’s Fast Play after a 21 2/5-second opening quarter, came away after a mild bid from 3-5 favorite Distinguish Forum, then had just enough left to hold off a fast-finishing Wasmi Song by three-quarters of a length.

Bred in Kentucky by Paul Varni and owned by Mrs. Georgia Ridder, Raw Gold, the 5-1 third choice, was ridden by Alex Solis after Chris Antley, who was aboard for her four-length maiden victory in her May 25 debut, chose to ride Wasmi Song.

Raw Gold also raced on Lasix for the first time after bleeding in a workout leading up to the Landaluce.

“She’s a very smart filly, always did everything right,” said Hofmans. “When Antley rode her the first time he said, ‘This filly broke slow today [and she led all the way].’ So, I knew how fast she was.”

“What scared me today was I knew Pat [Valenzuela] was going to send [Ebony’s Fast Play] to try and set it up for the other filly [Wasmi Song, her entrymate].

“They went fast [21 1/5 and 44 3/5], but Alex said when he asked her to run before the eighth pole, she kind of took off running again, then got really late the last sixteenth. But going that fast early, she had to. But, I’m very, very happy.”

Distinguish Forum, who had beaten males in her last race, finished fourth, nearly six lengths behind the winner.

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One of the six 3-year-old fillies entered in today’s $200,000 Hollywood Oaks will become a Grade I winner, but this is hardly a Grade I field.

With Serena’s Song in the East and Cat’s Cradle and Urbane injured, the local 3-year-old filly division isn’t very strong.

Sleep Easy is the 7-5 favorite in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks, but all she has in her five-race career is a maiden victory and a victory in the seven-furlong Railbird Stakes.

Trained by Bobby Frankel for Juddmonte Farms, the Seattle Slew filly stumbled at the start of last month’s Princess, effectively killing her chances. She wound up third, four lengths behind Favored One, the 2-1 second choice today. If successful, Sleep Easy would give Frankel his sixth stakes victory of the Hollywood Park meeting.

Owned by Mike Pegram and trained by Mike Puhich, Favored One is the most accomplished member of the Oaks field. She has four victories in 10 starts, three of her victories coming in stakes. However, she was no match for Serena’s Song in two races at Santa Anita and was beaten by nine lengths by Cat’s Cradle in an allowance race at Oak Tree last fall.

Others scheduled to run are Bello Cielo; Our Summer Bid, second in the Princess; Predicted Glory, who was fourth; and recent maiden winner Carsona.

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Horse Racing Notes

There will be two out-of-state simulcasts today. The New York Handicap from Belmont Park will be shown between the second and third races, and the Queen’s Plate from Woodbine will be shown between the third and fourth races. . . . A golf tournament to benefit the Pegasus Foundation will be held July 17 at 11 a.m. at Via Verde Country Club in San Dimas. The foundation cares for retired race horses. For more information, call 818-446-1586 or 818-452-8461. . . . Kent Desormeaux won three times Saturday.