Owner Rick Porter excited about watching Songbird in Alabama

Everyone is looking forward to watching Fox Hill Farm's Songbird in Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes -  no one more so than owner Rick Porter.

"I'm getting excited," said Porter by telephone from his home in Delaware. "I'll come up Saturday and go back the same day."

Porter bred and owned 2000 Alabama winner Jostle as well as 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, who was beaten a neck in the previous year's Alabama by the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Blind Luck, the top 3-year-old filly of 2010. He provided some background as to how Songbird wound up in Southern California with Hollendorfer:

"I was trying to split up the horses between Jerry and Larry Jones and this was the first crop of horses I sent Jerry," Porter explained. "I'd never even met him, but I had followed him, particularly when he was running Blind Luck against Havre de Grace. That's how I learned about him. We get along great and I'm really proud to have him as a trainer. I'm the happiest I've ever been with trainers. I've got Larry, Jerry and Dick Mandella, so I'm in good shape.

"As my babies in Ocala were developing, the initial reports were the half-sister to Mucho Macho Man [Southern Girl] that I bought was getting all the attention as the best horse," he continued. "And then Songbird started to surface, getting better and better, and in the meantime I had already committed the horses to Larry and Jerry. Right before they shipped out, Songbird had moved a couple steps ahead of Southern Girl. Either one would've done a great job, but I think her being out in California and not moving around as much, being at Del Mar and Santa Anita, it's a better program than being around here in the wintertime.

"I was out to see her when I was up for the sale last week, and she seems to have settled in very nicely in Saratoga."

Purchased for $775,000 as a yearling, Southern Girl won her career debut at Delaware Park last September, before running third in an allowance at Keeneland. She won a six-furlong allowance at Laurel Park in her first of the year July 24, improving to 2-for-3 for Larry Jones.

Source: NYRA Communications