01805 seconds to cover a foot while it took Songbird. Nyquist covered 5,747 feet.ĭo the math and it took Nyquist. The filly hugged the rail throughout and covered 5,666 feet. The horse floated five wide on both turns will have obviously run a longer race than the horse who hugs the rail throughout.īloodstock agent Elizabeth Blythe wrote in to point out that Nyquist, because he was wide on both turns, covered significantly more ground than Songbird did. The microchip put into the jockey's saddle gives you the precise amount of distance each horse covered in a race. Trakus, now used by virtually every top track in North America, has taken the guess work out of analyzing how far a horse ran. If you believe that you have to take into account the total distance covered when assessing how fast a horse ran then you won't find it hard to believe that Nyquist was actually the faster horse. If you believe in the Beyer way of doing things then, yes, Songbird was clearly faster, clearly better. The two "sheets" companies, Thoro-Graph and Ragozin, adjust their numbers, taking into account the ground lost on the turns. The group that compiles the Beyer numbers does not take into account ground loss on the turns or the total distance a horse covered. There are two schools of thought when it comes to making speed figures. But dig a little bit deeper and the head-to-head comparison between the two from Breeders' Cup Day tells a different story. None of this was exactly a surprise since Songbird was being touted as a potentially great filly while Nyquist didn't seem to excite anyone, despite his undefeated record. The Beyer figure for Songbird was a 99, far superior to Nyquist's 89. Both ran over the same track at the same distance and Nyquist's time for the mile-and-a-sixteenth was 1:43.79, 1.06 seconds slower than Songbird's time. To avoid risking further injury owner Rick Porter retired the filly from racing.Ī $400,000 yearling purchase, Songbird is by top sire Medaglia d'Oro and out of graded stakes winner Ivanavinalot.When Nyquist crossed the wire in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 1:43.79, there appeared little doubt that he was an inferior horse to the Juvenile Fillies winner Songbird - at least on that day. That marked only her second career loss in 15 starts.Īfter the loss, Songbird was sent for a veterinary evaluation, which revealed a bone chip in a front leg. After setting unchallenged fractions through the first mile of the 1 1/8-mile race, she was all out in the stretch under Mike Smith but could not withstand a closing charge from Forever Unbridled in the final strides, losing by a neck. Songbird returned in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. Her second start of 2017 was also a winning one as she captured her ninth Grade 1 race of her career in the Delaware Handicap. She returned from a layoff of seven months with a hard-fought win on the Belmont Stakes undercard in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes. Songbird was given an extended break after her 3-year-old season. She suffered her first career defeat by a nose in the Breeders' Cup Distaff after a stirring stretch battle with three-time champion older mare Beholder.Īfter the 2016 season, Songbird was named the Eclipse Award winner as champion 3-year-old filly. Songbird extended her unbeaten streak to 11 with a 5 3/4-length victory over Carina Mia and Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes in September at Parx Racing. Four weeks later, Songbird won the Grade 1, 1 1/4-mile Alabama Stakes at Saratoga by seven lengths to improve to 10 wins in as many starts.
Facing Carina Mia, who was considered one of the best fillies in the crop, she made easy work of the "Graveyard of Champions" to stay undefeated. She returned to the track two months later and stayed undefeated in the Summertime Oaks before heading to Saratoga for the Coaching Club American Oaks. She followed that up with easy wins in the Santa Ysabel and Santa Anita Oaks but was forced to miss the Kentucky Oaks when falling ill. Songbird made her 3-year-old debut a memorable one with a runaway victory in the Grade 2 Las Virgenes Stakes. She sealed the Eclipse Award up a month later when winning the Juvenile Fillies. She continued her march to the 2-year-old filly championship by winning the Grade 1 Chandelier, a Win and You're In race for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
The filly rose to the challenge, galloping off to win the Debutante by 5 1/4 lengths as the favorite. Songbird broke her maiden impressively at first asking at Del Mar in July 2015, prompting her connections to run her in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante at the end of the meet.
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