Last filly to win (and in fact the only filly to win!) the Haskell Invitational was in 1995 with the D. Wayne Lukas’ trained Serena’s Song who held off a strong finish by Pyramid Peak. Serena’s Song won by three-quarters of a length.
youtube.com Replay 1995 Haskell Invitational Serena vs. 10 colts
Even noted back then, SS was a heavily raced filly - who did race in the Kentucky Derby. Further she went into the Haskell with a surprising loss in the Coaching Club American Oaks - held that year July 8th. At that time they remarked about Serena:
If she is tired, Serena’s Song has good reason. In the middle of her second season, she was running for the 18th time, a mighty effort for any horse, let alone a filly. She has won 10 times, including the Jim Beam Stakes against colts on April 1 plus six straight races against fillies.
She was the high dramatic interest in the Derby, but Lukas brought her back two weeks later and she won the Black-Eyed Susan by nine lengths. Three weeks later, she won the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont by three lengths. But one month later, she was asked to run a mile and a quarter again and was run down by Golden Bri.
From the NY Daily News July 31, 1995
Running a filly - a filly coming off a weak race - against 10 colts is a challenge, exactly what this racing dynasty relishes. And in the end, he made it seem so simple.
“We came, we made history and we established her as one of the great ones,” he said. Just another day at the park for old D. Wayne.
Serena’s Song may have had better days, but she was the thorough professional yesterday in the $500,000 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. The boys never had a chance.
Under Gary Stevens, she made a bold move on the far turn, opened up on the field and had enough left to hold off a determined bid from Pyramid Peak. Serena’s Song won the Haskell by three-quarters of a length.
She became the first filly to win the Haskell in its 28-year history. Only one other, Alma North (1971), has even started.
Serena’s Song has done this before. She whipped colts in the Jim Beam at Turfway Park but struggled in the Kentucky Derby. Back with her own sex, she breezed through wins in the Black-Eyed Susan and the Mother Goose before a lackluster second place in the Coaching Club American Oaks in her last start.
Some had felt Lukas finally had asked too much of her and that the filly must have been a tired after eight 1995 races and several trips across the country.
As he so often does, however, Lukas got the last laugh.
“We never thought any of that was a problem,” said Lukas. “We took a little bit softer approach with her (for the Coaching Club). This time we turned up the crank. We pulled 25 pounds off her and said we’ll take them on. We came into this much better than her last race.”
The race ended at the finish line, but it was, for all practical purposes, over on the far turn.
Stevens didn’t rush his mount as the field left the gate on a perfect Jersey Shore summer afternoon. She was third going into the first turn as John and Pat and Reality Road led the field through an opening quarter-mile run in 22.60 seconds.
Reality Road took over down the backstretch, but Stevens was following his every step, ready to push the button at any time.
And then came the move. Approaching the three-eighths pole, Stevens got aggressive and Serena’s Song blasted off. In a flash, she opened up by 3 1/2 on the field and dared them to come get her.
“She put a move on them at the quarter-pole that was just unbelievable,” Stevens said.
But instead of blowing the race apart, she started to get tired inside the eighth-pole. Pyramid Peak, a 6-1 shot, started to run at her, but he simply had too much ground to make up and not enough time to get there.
Let’s hope Rachel can repeat history …
