Serena's Song

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Serena’s Song
Sire Rahy
Grandsire Blushing Groom
Dam Imagining
Damsire Northfields
Sex Filly
Foaled 1992
Country USA (Kentucky) Flag of the United States
Colour Bay
Breeder Dr. Howard J. Baker
Owner Robert and Beverly Lewis
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas
Record 38 Starts: 18 - 11 – 3
Earnings $3,283,388
Major Racing Wins, Awards and Honours
Major Racing Wins
Oak Leaf Stakes (1994)
Hollywood Starlet Stakes (1994)
Landaluce Stakes (1994)
Las Virgenes Stakes (1995)
Jim Beam Stakes (1995)
Santa Ynez Stakes (1995)
Gazelle Handicap (1995)
Santa Anita Oaks (1995)
Mother Goose Stakes (1995)
Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (1995)
Haskell Invitational Handicap (1995)
Beldame Stakes (1995)
Ogden Phipps Handicap (1996)
Fleur De Lis (1996)
Santa Maria Handicap (1996)
Santa Monica Handicap (1996)
Pimlico Distaff (1996)
Racing Awards
Kentucky-bred Three-Year-Old Filly (1995)
Kentucky-bred Horse of the Year (1995)
Kentucky-bred Handicap Mare (1996)
American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly (1995)
Honours
U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (2002)
Infobox last updated on: January 1, 2008.

Serena’s Song (b. 1992) is an American Thoroughbred race horse. The daughter of Rahy out of Imagining by Northfields (by Northern Dancer), won 11 Grade I races over three seasons of racing. All in all, she won 17 graded stakes, often against males.

Bred in Kentucky by Dr. Howard J. Baker, she was a small filly, so small that few looked her way at her yearling auction. All, that is, but the Hall of Fame trainer, D. Wayne Lukas. Lucas saw an athlete in her, a way of moving that hinted at her greatness to come. He bought her at auction for $150,000 for the Eclipse of Merit owners Robert and Beverly Lewis.

In her two-year-old season, Serena's Song, small but tough and always healthy, started 10 times, won 4, came in second twice, third once and earned $597,335. In the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, she gave the unbeaten champion, Flanders, the run of her life, only losing by a head. In the Grade I Hollywood Starlet Stakes, she dueled again with the very good Urbane. This time she won.

It was when she turned three that Serena’s Song came of age. In 13 starts, she won 9. She beat males in the Jim Beam Stakes and the Haskell Invitational Handicap. She conquered older females in the Beldame Stakes. That year she brought home the American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly award, winning $1,524.920.

In 1996, when she was four, she started 15 times, winning only 5 times, but placing in 7, and coming third in two. She ran over eight tracks and never finished worse than third. She came very close to winning the Whitney Handicap and was second in the Breeders' Cup Distaff. That year, due to the quality of her races, and her consistently coming in the money, she brought home $1,164,133.

[edit] Retirement

Upon retirement, Serena’s Song was sent to Denali Stud near Paris, Kentucky as a broodmare where she has proved more than useful. So far she had produced seven foals, six of which have raced, and five of which won. Among her offspring are the stakes winners Sophisticat (by Storm Cat, Serena’s Tune (by Mr. Prospector), and Grand Reward (by Storm Cat; Grand Reward now standing at stud).

Serena’s Song was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, still only ten years old.

[edit] References