CHAMPION Songbird had one mission this summer – Saratoga.

The undefeated filly started the mission with a win in the Coaching Club American Oaks at the end of July and then finished it with a win in the 10-furlong Alabama last Saturday. Jockey Mike Smith, who admitted that he panicked in the CCA Oaks when Carina Maria pounced on Songbird, didn’t have any need for worry this time as Songbird was at her professional best from the moment she walked in the gate.

“She didn’t move, man, I’m telling you, she was staring down the track,” Smith said, holding his hands a foot apart. “Boom, in front, like now.”

Songbird rocked out of stall six and positioned herself outside Go Maggie Go as Smith rocked his hands with her motion, a light loop in the reins as Go Maggie Go ripped the first quarter-mile in 23.76 sec.

RUNNING AS A TEAM

Go Maggie Go and Songbird ran as a team through a half-mile in 47.77 sec and three quarters in 1 m 11.13 sec, opening a five-length gap on Family Tree.

Passing the three-eighths pole, Smith had seen enough, allowing Songbird to pull the trap door on a spent Go Maggie Go.

“Really quick, for a mile and a quarter, we were running, brother, we were running hard early, they wanted to make us run early and they did,” Smith said. “She never got a deep breath, even when she put away the other filly, she pricked her ears for about three strides, and then I said, ‘OK, come on, you’ve got start marching.’”

Songbird cruised into the stretch, her cadence propelling her forward as her rivals paddled backward. Smith slapped her on the right shoulder, changed his hold, slid his whip through to his left hand and smacked her three times. He questioned his audacity afterward.

“I don’t know why I did that,” Smith said. “I just kept thinking about Weep No More rolling down the outside and nailing me for some odd reason. I said, ‘Come on, come on, come on, just stay here, just keep this pace.’”

Songbird kept her pace as always, pasting a seven-length defeat on Going For Broke with Family Tree in third. A dark bay daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, Songbird finished 10 furlongs in 2m 3.01 sec.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer liked what he saw so much, he got up, stepped out of the box and headed to the winner’s circle before Smith had said whoa. Hollendorfer walked down the steps and checked his flip phone.

“It looked like she was going to win so I got a little bit of a head start,” Hollendorfer said.

Fox Hill Farm purchased Songbird for $400,000 at Fasig-Tipton Select Sale in 2014. She ripped through her two-year-old season undefeated, culminating in an easy score in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

This year, she won the Las Virgenes, Santa Ysabel, Santa Anita Oaks before needing a break when she got sick before the Kentucky Oaks. Freshened, she tacked on the Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita in June, the CCA Oaks in July and the Alabama in August.

“Saratoga’s tough, we ran against really good fillies. We accomplished our goal and that’s hard to do here at Saratoga,” Hollendorfer said. “I don’t know how to describe it, but I’m glad it ends up the way that it does. She just has all the parts that make her special and a big heart, just one of those horses that can do what she does and there’s not too many of them. I don’t ever like to say easy in racing, a lot of it and most of it isn’t.”

“You just don’t want to get beat, now, it’s the fans, it’s everybody now,” Smith said. “Before it was you and the outfit, now, man, it’s the fans, everybody who’s expecting it, the more they keep doing it the more they expect it, you just don’t want to let anyone down. I’ve been there before, the last time with Zenyatta, I just felt like I let the world down. You just don’t want it to happen.”