BILL Mott clapped. Three long, deliberate, respectful claps.

The Hall of Fame trainer had just watched Carina Mia, his best three-year-old filly, rally and then retreat against Songbird in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga last Saturday.

The undefeated filly jogged and stopped at the finish line, staring across the infield at Saratoga. Jockey Mike Smith stroked her neck. And Mott applauded.

“It’s not any disgrace or embarrassment to run second to her. We tried her, we had our chance, we have no excuse,” Mott said. “Our filly was doing great going into the race. We couldn’t have written it out on paper any better, that’s the way we envisioned it, I thought maybe we had her. But we didn’t.”

Smith, for moments, for strides, thought the same thing as Julian Leparoux launched Carina Mia to Songbird in the middle of the turn in the nine-furlong stakes race. Smith pumped, Leparoux sat. For the first time in nine starts, Songbird was asked for effort, to stave off a filly with the audacity and ability to look the undefeated champion in the eye.

Was there grit to go along with grace?

“I didn’t know because it’s never happened,” Smith said, as he was mobbed by autograph seekers chanting anything from Zenyatta to Holy Bull to Songbird. “I always imagined that she would and certainly hoping that she would. Today, she showed something unbelievable.”

It just took awhile. Songbird broke smartly from the rail while Carina Mia broke slightly slower. Smith sat, Leparoux nudged, forcing Smith to drape low and encourage Songbird for a few strides before establishing her usual spot, on the lead and in control.

Outside in the four lane, Songbird loped through the first quarter mile in 23.86secs and a half in 47.52secs while Carina Mia settled, outside at Songbird’s tail. Fourth choice Mo d’Amour found space in third on the rail, longshot Flora Dora followed her and Ashland winner Weep No More lagged in last.

Leaving the backside, Leparoux picked up the bat from his shoulders and swung.

“He came to me hard, which is a great move on his part,” Smith said. “It caught me off guard more than anything, I didn’t realise that filly had that kind of acceleration.”

Smith wasn’t subtle, going from sitting to scrubbing on the 1/5 shot, while Leparoux hovered on the 2/1 second choice.

Smith switched his whip to his left hand, switched Songbird to her right lead, and tapped her once left-handed, waved his whip and tapped her again.

“I’ve hit her before, only to get her going,” Smith said. “Today I was worried.”

Songbird turned angst into acceleration, drawing off to win by five and a quarter-lengths, a margin that belied what had actually occurred at the quarter pole when two great fillies started swinging.

Owned by Fox Hill Farm, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Songbird finished nine furlongs (her first try at the distance) in 1m 49.56secs.

After the race, Smith met Leparoux at the jockeys’ room, squinted and screeched like only Mike Smith can do after winning a big one.

“You scared me, I know that,” Smith said. “That’s the hardest anybody’s made her run, by far. I’ve only had to let her run two jumps, you made me run for a sixteenth of a mile, man, I mean, like, freaking run.”

In eight starts, back to her maiden debut at Del Mar last summer, through the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November, to the Santa Anita Oaks in April, to her most recent start in the Summertime Oaks, Songbird has broken sharply and controlled the race, her high cruising speed creating instant separation from her toiling rivals. There had been 55 chances spread over eight races for a filly to hook Songbird and it hadn’t happened.

Until Sunday at Saratoga. There is some old saying, it is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried. Or something like that.

“We tried her, we are the ones who tried her the best, I guess,” Leparoux said. “We love our filly. I thought coming into the race, we had a great chance to win it, so I rode her to win. The plan was sit off of her and at the three-eighths pole, go ahead and make a race out of it. After that, she just has a big heart, I guess, and rebroke. We made a good race out of it, a good second, we just got beat by a champion.”

As Smith pulled off Fox Hill Farm’s silks, he was already looking ahead.

“This race should make mine go up and it might hurt the other one. My mare’s never had to dig, you know what it does to champions sometimes,” Smith said, swelling up his chest. “All of a sudden, they’ve got some new air.”

Hollendorfer doesn’t know about new air and doesn’t spend much time analyzing things he can’t control. A methodical Hall of Famer, Hollendorfer lives in simple respect of Songbird.

“She’s like any other athlete,” Hollendorfer said. “You’re in this sport or that sport. All the great athletes are always trying to get better so we’re trying to get better and we have to help guide her because we can only train her by observation. We’re trying to get her better. I think she will improve. She looked like she handled this pretty well. I just feel blessed to have a filly like this, very grateful. That’s my attitude.”