Farewell to Serena’s Song, a queen who defined an era in world horse racing
- Turf Diario
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
3-year-old champion in 1995, winner of 11 G1 races, and later an influential matriarch in breeding, she died at 34 years old at Denali Stud; her legacy also reached Argentina through her son Grand Reward, a prominent stallion at Haras La Quebrada who also passed away recently
By Diego H. Mitagstein
For nearly three decades at Denali Stud, Kentucky, there was a figure that was impossible not to recognize. She walked with the calm of old champions and with the silent respect that usually surrounds horses who have already done it all. She was Serena’s Song, one of the great protagonists of American turf in the nineties and, later, one of the most influential broodmares of her generation.
On Wednesday, at 34 years old, her story reached its end. The farm confirmed her death due to age-related complications, closing an extraordinarily long life for a mare who not only shone on the track but also left a profound mark on breeding.
Bred in Kentucky by Dr. Howard Baker, Serena’s Song was a daughter of the notable Rahy and Imagining(Northfields). It all began when Bob and Beverly Lewis purchased her for US$ 150,000 at the 1993 Keeneland July Sale, within a group of yearlings destined for the training of D. Wayne Lukas. No one imagined then that this filly would transform into one of the most durable and successful runners of her time.
An Intense Campaign, Against Everyone
Serena’s Song debuted in 1994 and quickly showed she had something different. In just her fourth start, she had already claimed the Landaluce Stakes (G2) at Hollywood Park, beginning a campaign that would soon take her to the forefront of her generation.
That same year she conquered the Oak Leaf Stakes (G1) and the Starlet Stakes (G1), consolidating herself among the best 2-year-old fillies in the country. In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), she came close to crowning her season, but finished second by a head behind her stablemate Flanders (Seeking the Gold).
However, the true leap would come at age 3, in 1995, a season that transformed her into a central figure. After starting the year with three consecutive victories, Lukas made an unusual decision for a filly: facing her against the males in the Jim Beam Stakes (G2), one of the preps for the Kentucky Derby (G1). With Corey Nakatani in the irons, Serena’s Song dominated the race with authority and won by 3 1/2 lengths, defeating several of the colts aiming for the classic at Churchill Downs.
The triumph led her team to attempt something even more ambitious: running the Derby. Although she finished sixteenth, after setting very fast fractions on the lead, the experience reinforced her reputation as a brave and competitive filly.
Revenge Against the Males
In the 1995 Haskell Invitational Handicap (G1) at Monmouth Park, Serena’s Song faced the colts again, and this time she made history by becoming the first filly to win such a prestigious race, resisting with courage in the final meters to prevail by 3/4 of a length.
That same year she also added the Gazelle Handicap (G1) and the Beldame Stakes (G1), completing a season in which she won six G1 races and was crowned Champion 3-Year-Old Filly at the 1995 Eclipse Awards.
Her campaign continued at the highest level in 1996, when at age 4 she once again demonstrated her quality by winning five races, including three new G1 tests: the Santa Monica Handicap, the Santa Maria Handicap, and the Hempstead Handicap.
In total, Serena’s Song contested 38 races, won 18, was second 11 times and third 3 times, with 17 graded stakes victories and US$ 3,283,388 in earnings, a record figure for a filly in her era. In 2002, her career was recognized with her induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
From Champion to Phenomenal Mother
After her retirement from the track on December 9, 1996, Serena’s Song arrived at Denali Stud, where she would begin a second stage of equal relevance. There she produced 12 offspring, of which 11 raced and 9 were winners, consolidating herself as one of the great blue hen mares of Northern breeding.
Among her most prominent children is Sophisticat, a daughter of Storm Cat who won the Coronation Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot in 2002. She also produced Harlington (Unbridled), a stakes winner in the United States; and Schramsberg (Storm Cat), another stakes-winning son.
Her first foal, Serena’s Tune (Mr. Prospector), was also a multiple stakes winner and later a high-level producer. Through her daughter Serena’s Cat (Storm Cat), Serena’s Song also became the maternal grandmother of Honor Code (A.P. Indy), champion older horse in the United States in 2015.
But her legacy also had a special connection with Argentine turf. One of her best sons, Grand Reward (Storm Cat), was imported to Argentina to serve as a stallion at Haras La Quebrada, where he left a significant mark as a sire, producing numerous stakes winners and consolidating himself for years among the country’s most prominent producers.
Coincidentally, Grand Reward died just a few weeks ago at La Quebrada, closing in an almost symbolic way the cycle of a line that had been born in Kentucky with Serena’s Song.
The Final Years of the Queen of Denali
In 2014, when she was 22 years old, Serena’s Song was definitively retired from reproduction. Since then, she lived a quiet retirement at Denali Stud, already an iconic figure of the establishment. During that time, she helped raise thousands of dollars for racing charities through the donation of her halters for benefit auctions, while her weakness for peppermints became part of the farm's daily routine.
For those who worked there, Serena’s Song was much more than a retired champion.
“Serena had an enormous impact on the lives of many people,” expressed Conrad Bandoroff of Denali Stud. “The Lewis family trusted us to care for her for three decades, and that is something we will always be grateful for. To everyone here, she was and always will be the Queen of Denali.”
She will be buried in the same place that was her home for nearly thirty years. There she will remain forever—the mare who ran against everyone, won almost everything, and ended up leaving a lineage capable of extending her name far beyond the tracks.
