Related to a champion filly and named for a Frank Sinatra tune, Song of Mine has a lot going for her before her racing debut.
Now to see if Songbird's half-sister chirps nicely on the track.
The daughter of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper meets the starter for the first time in today's seventh race at Oakawn Park, a one-mile maiden special weights event for 3-year-old fillies. David Cohen, off to a good start in his first Oaklawn meeting, rides Song of Mine for trainer Dane Kobiskie, a fellow Oaklawn newcomer.
Paula, Tom and Kaitlin Haughey (PTK LLC) purchased Song of Mine for $800,000 at the August 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. It's the most expensive horse the family has purchased at public auction since entering the business almost two decades ago and reportedly the second-most expensive yearling by Ghostzapper to sell at public auction at the time.
Song of Mine is produced by Grade 2 winner Ivanavinalot, the dam of Songbird, a champion at 2 and 3 for owner Rick Porter (Fox Hill Farm) and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. The Breeders' Cup Juvenile fillies winner in 2015, Songbird retired with 13 victories from 15 starts and earnings of $4,692,000, her only losses coming to fellow champions Beholder (2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff) and Forever Unbridled (2017 Personal Ensign).
Song of Mine has been brought along slowly by Kobiskie, who got on the Oaklawn scoreboard last week with the unbeaten Colour Guard for the same family. She is 8-1 on the morning line from post two.
"We give all our horses as much time as they need before they run, and Song of Mine is simply a big filly," PTK racing manager Kaitlin Haughey told the Oaklawn media-relations department."We wanted to give her as much as time as she needed to grow, mature and fill out. So in a sense she's right on schedule, but in actuality there never was a schedule. We just listen to our horses and let them tell us when the time is right."
Song of Mine's name derives from "The Christmas Waltz," a 1954 release by Sinatra in the year that the entertainer made a spectacular comeback with Capitol Records after winning an Academy Award for "From Here to Eternity."
"We name our horses together as a family, and almost all of the names have stories behind them," Haughey said. "The lyric is: 'And this song of mine in three-quarter time. ...' It's a favorite song of ours, and who doesn't love Frank? It's rare that all three of us immediately agree on a name, so we jumped on it. Mom submitted the name less than two hours after we bought her."
Twelve days after the sale, then 3-year-old Songbird won the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga, her 10th consecutive victory. Starting today at Oaklawn, little sister gets a chance to make her own kind of music.
Sports on 02/01/2018