Songbird (KY)

Songbird came tantalizingly close to an undefeated career on the racetrack. In 15 starts, the brilliant dark bay daughter of Medaglia d’Oro won 13 times, including nine Grade 1 victories. She did just about everything that can be asked of a great racehorse. Only a nose in one race and a neck in another kept her from perfection. Songbird’s Hall of Fame trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, had the highest levels of confidence every time his filly was on the track.

Inducted

2023

Foaled

2013

Sire

Medaglia d'Oro

Dam

Ivanavinalot

Damsire

West Acre

Breeder

John Antonelli

Owner

Fox Hill Farms

Trainer

Jerry Hollendorfer

Career

2015-2017

Earnings

$4,692,000

Racing Record

15

Starts

Year	Starts	First	Second	Third	Earnings
Year	Sts	1	2	3	$
2015	4	4	0	0	$1502000 $1,502,000
2016	8	7	1	0	$2210000 $2,210,000
2017	3	2	1	0	$980000 $980,000

Biography

Songbird came tantalizingly close to an undefeated career on the racetrack. In 15 starts, the brilliant dark bay daughter of Medaglia d’Oro won 13 times, including nine Grade 1 victories. She did just about everything that can be asked of a great racehorse. Only a nose in one race and a neck in another kept her from perfection. Songbird’s Hall of Fame trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, had the highest levels of confidence every time his filly was on the track.

“I never like to say it’s easy, but she’s just got a lot of talent,” Hollendorfer said after Songbird won the 2016 Alabama Stakes by seven lengths for her 10^th consecutive victory to start her career. “She makes it look easy … I just take every race as it comes up and do my best and she does her best.”

Songbird’s best was always a sight to behold. She won at seven different tracks — in California, Delaware, Kentucky, New York, and Pennsylvania — and was spectacular everywhere she went. Owned by the late Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farms, Songbird was picked out by bloodstock agent Tom McGreevy at the 2014 Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. Bred in Kentucky by John Antonelli, Songbird was a $400,000 purchase by Fox Hill. McGreevy had previously selected 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace for Porter’s prominent stable.

“She’s the best horse I’ve bought, in a rout,” McGreevy said. “You just run out of words to use for her. It really brings a tear to your eye. I don’t know what else you can say.”

Songbird made her career debut at Del Mar on July 26, 2015. She toyed with the competition that day, winning by 6½ lengths with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith in the irons. Smith was aboard for all 15 of Songbird’s races. Following her maiden win, Songbird dove into Grade 1 company, winning the Del Mar Debutante and Chandelier before shipping to Kentucky for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland.

It was fitting that the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile was contested on Halloween — Songbird was scary good. Looking every bit the 3-5 favorite she was, Songbird controlled the pace throughout and drew off to defeat Grade 1 winner Rachel’s Valentina by 5¾ lengths. Her third consecutive Grade 1 win locked up the Eclipse Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Filly. Smith said the Breeders’ Cup victory was never in doubt.

“Once we jumped out the gate, it was just a matter of me staying on,” he said following the race. “She’s so talented and she gives you so much confidence. I almost felt like yawning as we went along. I don’t mean that in a bragging way. She just gives me that much confidence.”

Songbird spent the first half of her 3-year-old campaign in 2016 at Santa Anita. She clicked off four consecutive graded wins — easy scores in the Las Virgenes (G2), Santa Ysabel (G3), Santa Anita Oaks (G1), and Summertime Oaks (G2) — to run her win streak to eight. The only hiccup during this period was when she was forced to skip the Kentucky Oaks because of a fever.

Journeying to the East Coast, Songbird made it nine in a row with a 5¼-length victory in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga prior to her Alabama victory.

“The fans just loved Songbird and she put on a performance for them that day at Saratoga,” Porter later said of the Alabama. “That was a beautiful thing to watch. It showed how well she got over the ground. She was a piece of perfection that day. She ran to a different beat than they did. (Hall of Fame trainer) Bill Mott told me he had to go down and applaud when she got back to the winner’s circle.”

Following the Alabama, she crushed the field in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx in Pennsylvania, setting up a Breeders’ Cup showdown for the ages at Santa Anita. In the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Songbird delivered one of the finest performances of her career, but her win streak was snapped at 11 by future Hall of Famer Beholder by a nose at the wire. Smith and Songbird battled furiously with Gary Stevens and Beholder in a remarkable stretch showdown. The 6-year-old champion mare got the better of the photo finish by the slimmest of margins.

“She ran incredible and I’m so proud of her,” Smith said. “The real Beholder showed up today. That was probably the best race she has run in her life. My filly made her reach down as deep as she has. In losing, I feel like we won. We got beat a short nose.”

The narrow defeat only enhanced Songbird’s reputation. She was an easy choice for the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Eclipse Award. Songbird returned to the races as a 4-year-old in June 2017 to win the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park and followed with her ninth Grade 1 victory a month later in the Delaware Handicap.

Songbird lost by a neck to Forever Unbridled in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign that August at Saratoga. It was her 15^th and final start, as an injury was discovered after the race and Porter made the decision to retire her. Songbird finished her remarkable career with a record of 13-2-0 from 15 starts with earnings of $4,692,000.

“There’s no question she was the best horse I’ve ever owned,” Porter said following Songbird’s retirement. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. I’ve had some good horses, but Songbird was something special. She won 11 in a row … won nine Grade 1s at seven different tracks. She was spectacular.”

“Every moment with her was special. Everything she did was extraordinary and eye-catching. Everything she did was a blessing,” Smith said. “Her losses weren’t really defeats. She ran amazing in them. The first time I didn’t get the bob against one of the greatest fillies of all time in a Breeders’ Cup race that was right up there with Personal Ensign and Winning Colors. The other was to a mare who went on to win the Distaff. Those were great fillies that beat us. It shows how great Songbird was.

“Everyone loved her. They loved her on both coasts. You couldn’t help but love her. You don’t see too many horses like her.”

Following her retirement, Songbird was sold to Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $9.5 million during the 2017 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. It was the second-highest price ever for a broodmare prospect, topped only by Whisper Hill’s $10 million purchase of Havre de Grace in 2012.