Noble Tune News: Another Stakes Winner For Serena’s Song
A happy chord of nostalgia was struck Saturday night when Serene Melody ended her racing career with a perfect-trip victory in the $50,000 Wintergreen Stakes at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.
Serene Melody was produced by the Hall of Fame mare Serena’s Song, the third dam of Noble Tune and Honor Code, who in 1995 became the only filly to win the Turfway showcase event, the Spiral Stakes (then the Jim Beam). Fittingly, Serene Melody races under the same green-and-yellow silks her dam carried for Beverly Lewis and her late husband, Bob.
“It was a great feeling, seeing her win like that,” trainer Charlie LoPresti said early Sunday. “I had my first winner for the Lewises [in 1993], and I was with them the day Serena’s Song won at Turfway. They are truly special people.”
LoPresti said Serene Melody will be retired to Denali Stud and will be bred soon to Candy Ride.
“[Serene Melody] broke real fast, and actually, she put herself into the race, so I just sat and enjoyed the ride,” Doyle told Turfway publicity afterward. “Down the backside, she was pretty keen, so about the three-eighths pole, I said, ‘Right, let’s just start smoothing along.’ The longer you sit on her, the better she’ll go, and I waited until she switched leads up the stretch. Then I asked her to go on, and she did it impressively.”
The first stakes victory for Serene Melody was her fourth from 16 overall starts and increased her earnings to $159,480. She was coming off a fourth-place finish in the Gr2 Chilukki Stakes over the Churchill Downs dirt in early November.
Serena’s Song, now retired at Denali, has had 12 foals to race. Five foals have won stakes, including Serena’s Tune (second dam to Noble Tune and Honor Code), Grand Reward, Harlington, and Schramsberg. Her last foal now is 2.
Noble Tune covered a full book of 102 mares in 2015, his second season at Rathmor Stud for a service of R25 000. His dual Gr1 winning half-brother Honor Code, who placed third behind American Pharoah in the Gr1 Breeders Classic, will stand his first season at Lane’s End for a fee of $40 000.
– extract drf.com
