She’ll Run With Best of Them

I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this from Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug or any of those other fire-breathing women’s activists, but a female has never won the Santa Anita Handicap. I mean, talk abut runaway sexism. Why, they’ve had 58 of those over the years. And 36 fillies and mares have tried to win it. And failed.

Talk about politically incorrect. Male chauvinism. The Santa Anita Handicap ranks right up there with Henry VIII.

Fillies have won the Santa Anita Derby. They’ve won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont.

The best they could do in 36 tries in the Santa Anita ‘Cap were two seconds, two thirds and a couple of fourths.

They haven’t been legislated out of the winner’s circle. They segregate themselves.

It’s not that they can’t run against the clock. The girls are as speedy as the boys. It’s the infighting. It’s not the male horses that give them the problems, it’s the male riders. Johnny Longden, Ralph Neves and Eddie Arcaro never let anybody get by them, much less a female horse.

It wasn’t the distance. Miss Grillo finished third in the mile-and-a-quarter Santa Anita ‘Cap in 1949. Then she won the mile-and-three-quarters San Juan Capistrano Handicap two weeks later.

In the early ‘50s, Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt, no less, came out here with two gorgeous, sweet-striding fillies, Next Move and Bed O’Roses. Next Move was second in the ‘Cap in 1951 and Bed O’Roses was fourth a year later. Vanderbilt left in a huff. Also a Rolls Royce.

In 1950, Calumet brought the beauteous filly, Two Lea, out here along with the great Citation. Two Lea promptly romped in the fillies-and-mares Santa Margarita Handicap, and the stable put her in the ‘Cap as a kind of rabbit for Citation.

It didn’t work. Noor ran both of them down. But the railbirds were impressed when Two Lea failed to fold and ran a gutty third.

Still, the results have been so emphatic, no female has even tried this race in five years.

But none of this seems to faze owner Bob Lewis or trainer Wayne Lukas. This year’s Big ‘Cap was so resolutely all-male it was supposed to be won by a horse called Cigar. But they have a plucky little lady named Serena’s Song who plans to be where the boys are this Saturday at Santa Anita in the 59th running of this bastion of male dominance.

If you looked at the Racing Form chart, you would be hard put to know Serena’s Song was a she. She is the Cal Ripken of thoroughbreds. Barely 4 years old, she has been to the post 25 times already in her career. Man O’War made it only 21 times. So did Secretariat.

She never misses a race. She’s disgustingly healthy. As they say around a racetrack “Never had a pimple on ‘er!” She’s what they call in shed row a “good doer.” English translation: She eats like a truck driver. She’s an athlete, not an Amazon. She’s small for a racehorse--15 hands, 900-1,000 pounds. She can corner like a hockey player, change leads without breaking stride. She’s as easy to ride as a merry-go-round.

If she were human, Lewis says, she’d be a movie star. “Oh, she’s beautiful!” he tells you. “Prettiest horse in any paddock.” She had a chance to be America’s Sweetheart last May when she led the Kentucky Derby all the way to the far turn before tiring. She came out of the gate as if the sheriff were after her and set such blistering fractions clocks were breaking all over the backstretch. Then, she faded to 16th. Thunder Gulch won. But Tejano Run, a horse Serena’s Song had beaten four weeks before in the Jim Beam, was second.

Ordinarily, an experience like this is devastating to horses of any gender. They begin to doubt themselves. Animal psychiatry is indicated. At least, a long layoff to rebuild self-esteem.

Serena’s Song (and Lukas) weren’t having any. She went out 13 days later and tow-roped a field of fillies at Pimlico in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

Any married man can tell you resiliency is a female characteristic. Most male horses are faint-hearted, easily intimidated and the likelihood exists a 16th-place finish would demoralize even a Man O’War. Serena’s Song acted as if it never happened. She even beat males again in the Haskell Invitational.

The first time Lukas spotted her at the Keeneland sales, he thought he was looking at an equine Babe Didrikson. Remembers Lewis, who purchased her for $150,000: “Wayne said to me, ‘She’s so athletic we could take her right now, as a yearling, and run her at Santa Anita against 2-year-olds.’ ”

Maybe in this era when you can’t call a female performer an actress anymore or a female heir an heiress, Serena’s Song thinks she’s a colt? Owner Lewis laughs. “No, she’s just a consummate professional. She loves to compete. The sex of the competition doesn’t matter to her. Even after a race she doesn’t win, she’s kicking down the stall by Wednesday wanting to get back out there in front of an audience.”

So, she didn’t become the fourth filly to win the Kentucky Derby. Can she become the first to win the Big ‘Cap? It may not be the lady-like thing to do--but is there any such thing anymore? Shoot! You don’t even have to take your hat off in an elevator anymore when a lady gets on. And if you get up to give her your seat on the bus, she might whack you over the head with her purse.

Anyway, a filly better win it soon. Five years from now it may be illegal to mention gender, and the headline story may read “The Santa Anita Handicap was won by a horse today, one formerly known as a filly.” Serena’s Song might be our last chance to make it news.

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* BREEDERS’ CUP: Hollywood Park will stage the $10-million, 10-race series in 1997. C10