Serena's Song

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Serena’s Song


caption =
sire = Rahy
grandsire = Blushing Groom
dam = Imagining
damsire = Northfields
sex = Filly
foaled = 1992
country = United States flagicon|USA
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
race = 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)
Hempstead Handicap (1996)
Fleur De Lis Handicap (1996)
Santa Maria Handicap (1996)
Santa Monica Handicap (1996)
Pimlico Distaff (1996)
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)
updated= January 1, 2008

Serena’s Song (born 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.

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.

References

* "Champions, The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of America's Greatest Thoroughbreds, Revised Edition, Champions from 1893-2004," the Daily Racing Form
* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/serenas+song Serena’s Song’s pedigree, racing stats, and photo]
* [http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=377 Serena’s Song in the Hall of Fame]