Carina Mia will challenge Songbird in Coaching Club American Oaks
SARATOGA SPRINGS >> Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott is looking forward to Sunday’s Coaching Club American Oaks.
He sends out the classy Carina Mia to do battle with unbeaten champion Songbird in the Grade 1 race at 1 1/8 miles for 3-year-old fillies on the main track.
“It’ll be fun and I think it will be a pretty good matchup,” commented Mott at his Oklahoma Training Track barn. “I mean, look, somebody’s got to try her.”
Songbird, stabled in California with Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, is unbeaten and untested in eight career starts, and makes her first appearance in New York.
Her presence makes this edition of the prestigious race an old-fashioned California versus New York rivalry.
If Songbird starts, the purse of the Coaching Club American Oaks goes from $300,000 to $500,000.
Owned by Three Chimneys Farm and ridden by regular jockey Julien Leparoux, Carina Mia comes to the CCAO off two consecutive stakes victories, the last of which was the Grade 1 Acorn on Belmont Stakes Day.
She has been in Saratoga with the Mott stable for two months, and worked a sparkling 5 furlongs in 59 1/5 seconds last week on the Oklahoma.
“She is wonderful to train,” said Mott. “Very straightforward and willing to work.
A very nice filly. We don’t think she has to be on the lead, although we may have to be forwardly placed when it comes to Songbird.”
Songbird capped a beautiful 2-year-old season with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies to seal her title.
She has kept right on going this year, and exits a facile score in the Summer Oaks at Santa Anita on June 18.
Songbird has won her eight races by an average of five lengths, and will have regular rider Mike Smith aboard in the CCAO.
Only three others are in the race, with Weep No More leading the trio.
She deserves the highest respect here, having captured the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland over Carina Mia and Spinaway Stakes winner Rachel’s Valentina.
Weep No More is a confirmed stretch runner, and is very much in the mix if Songbird and Carina Mia hook up early with a contested pace.
In her last, she was a very troubled seventh in the 14-horse Kentucky Oaks on May 6.
Mo d’Amour is winless in four outings since her victory in the Busher at Aqueduct on Feb. 27.
In her last, she was fourth in the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont on July 2.
Completing the field is Flora Dora, who was fourth in the Busher.
If Songbird starts, the purse of the Coaching Club American Oaks goes from $300,000 to $500,000.