SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks was playing out just as most people thought it would. The visiting Songbird, with the target of a champion on her back, was being stalked intently by Carina Mia, the challenger playing in her backyard at steamy Saratoga.Approaching the quarter pole of the 1-1/8-mile event, Carina Mia and jockey Julien Leparoux were at the throatlatch of Songbird and Mike Smith.Rick Porter, the owner of Songbird, was standing in his box seat area near the finish line.I got a little nervous, Porter admitted.The nerves didnt last long. Smith asked Songbird for more than he ever had to before and the filly responded, running away from Carina Mia and drawing off to a 5-1/4-length victory in the Coaching Club, keeping her unbeaten in nine starts. Carina Mia was second by four lengths over Flora Dora. Mo dAmour and Weep No More completed the order of finish.I knew at some point Carina Mia was going to give her a serious test, an acid test, and she did, Smith said. She made her do something shes never had to do before; well see what happens. A lot of times, a true champion, this will move them up because its the first time somebody got inside her gut. If that happens, oh my.Songbird had been dominant winning her first eight starts by a combined 42-1/2 lengths. With the exception of the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies, Songbird had faced modest competition.In Carina Mia, winner of the Grade 2 Eight Belles and Grade 1 Acorn in her last two starts, Songbird was meeting the best filly she had ever faced.I could agree with that, Jerry Hollendorder, the trainer of Songbird said.Songbird had the rail and was the speed of the Coaching Club American Oaks, whose purse was raised by the New York Racing Association to $500,000 from $300,000 to attract Songbird here. Carina Mia was the stalker and had post 2.Songbird jumped sharply out of the gate and Smith, understanding the rail was the deepest part of the track, moved Songbird a bit off the rail in the early stages of the race and moved to the three- or four-path down the backside.Songbird maintained a length to 1-1/2-length advantage over Carina Mia through fractions of 23.86 seconds for the quarter-mile, 47.52 for the half, and 1:11.63 for six furlongs.Entering the far turn, Leparoux sent Carina Mia after Songbird, who had wandered back to the inside. At the quarter pole, the two were on equal terms.In upper stretch, Smith went to a left-handed whip, smacked Songbird a few times and she responded, drawing away from Carina Mia in the final three-sixteenths.Songbird, a daughter of Medaglia dOro who sold for $400,000 as a yearling across the street at the Fasig-Tipton auction in 2014, covered the 1-1/8 miles in 1:49.56 and returned $2.60 as the 1-5 favorite.Im very grateful to win with her, Hollendorfer said. She does it easy, you always wonder if theyre going to keep doing it, but she keeps doing it.The vanquished were proud, albeit somewhat disappointed as they thought they were primed to pull an upset.At the quarter pole I thought I could actually win the race, Leparoux said. But she just re-broke.Said Bill Mott, Carina Mias trainer: I thought maybe we had her. We didnt.Songbird will stay in Saratoga and point to the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama here on Aug. 20.Phil Jones Jersey . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. John Stones England Jersey . Arsenal failed to take full advantage of its main rivals stumbles on Saturday as substitute Gerard Deulofeu levelled with a hard shot from a tight angle in the 84th minute to give Everton a deserved point. Ahead of a crucial fortnight that will see them play against Napoli in the Champions League, Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal leads by five points ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. http://www.englandsoccerpro.com/Danny-Rose-England-Jersey/ .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker. Harry Kane England Jersey . In Europe, top teams seem to be largely happy with their squads after spending nearly $1 billion in the off-season. And although English league clubs are unlikely to splash cash in January, Arsenal and Chelsea could be tempted to strengthen their squads with new strikers. Jordan Henderson Jersey . -- Jakob Silfverberg is making himself right at home with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring four goals in his first four games.DETROIT -- When?Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland sat down this past offseason to plan out his approach, he had one simple goal:He wanted to win.I know, weird.His team has made the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons, a streak unheard of in hockey these days. In all of sports, really. Holland wants a 26th. He just wasnt willing to concede the Eastern Conference to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals or?Pittsburgh Penguins?-- or willing to make way for young teams making strides in the East like the?Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres.So when Pavel Datsyuk left after 14 seasons as a Wing, Holland replaced him with?Frans Nielsen. When he saw a weakness in his teams power play, Holland addressed it by adding Thomas Vanek. The GM thought his dressing room needed more personality and spark. Enter Steve Ott, who has both oozing from his pores. Constantly.A rebuild? No thanks. Thats not something Holland is interested in undertaking.There are no guarantees with rebuilds, Holland said after the Red Wings practiced on Wednesday. There are no guarantees youre going to come out the other side and youre going to be elite.Rarely do playoff teams initiate their own rebuild. Rebuilds are the result of a team petering out for some reason, a franchise that has reached the end of the line. Not a team with a rich history of success that is the result of decades instilling a culture of winning and playing the right way into every player who enters the organization.In Detroit, its a culture of winning that has been handed down from Steve Yzerman to Nicklas Lidstrom to Henrik Zetterberg and now to?Dylan Larkin, Petr Mrazek and Andreas Athanasiou.You can excuse Holland and the Red Wings if theyre not overly eager to rip out that fabric of success in exchange for the opportunity to draft somewhere closer to the top.But Ill admit that Ive wondered if a few down years might do the Red Wings some good. Ive suggested as much. Ive wondered what this organization could do if it added a couple of top-10 picks to its talented young core. I certainly understood why some fans were puzzled the past couple of years that Detroit brought in guys such as?Mike Green, Vanek and Ott instead of young players who might be able to do the same thing much more cheaply, gain experience, lose a few more games and help improve the draft odds.Holland has done the analysis -- and decided that the cost and risk of going down that path far outweighed a possible reward.Theres now a lottery. The first four picks are lottery picks. You can be the worst team in the league and get the fifth pick in the draft, Holland said. Each year, we go forward, it becomes more and more a parity league. Why is that? Players come out of the entry level and they go from entry-level contracts to $5-$6 million.This isnt the same system that that Penguins and Blackhawks had to navigate on the way to landing elite players -- and neither are the contract structures.Chicago, for example, won a Stanley Cup with?Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews?still playing on their entry-level deals. Then they got matching contracts for five years and $6.3 million. Then came the monster deals worth $10.5 million per season. To land those players, Chicago fans had to endure a decade in which the Blackhawks made the playoffs just once. Teams dont have to do that anymore.Besides the changes to the draft lottery, young players are getting bigger contracts earlier, which lends itseelf to more parity.dddddddddddd The?Edmonton Oilers, you can be sure, are planning on?Connor McDavids next contract looking much more like Kanes and Toews current ones than their second deals. And thats if youre lucky enough to land McDavid during your rebuild in the first place. Only one team every decade gets to do that.The Red Wings have considered all that as they march forward. Their solution is to keep doing what theyve always done: just keep winning. Draft well from the position in which youre placed and make the kids earn the playing time.Detroit signed Green last year, and he has seven points in eight games this season. Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said Greens teammates are learning how to play to his strengths more, to take advantage of his skating.Green said it took him half a season to get comfortable on a new team. Now, here he is.Weve changed up a few things, but mostly its a confidence thing, Green said. We are detailed in our assignments, and it has shown this season.Both Holland and Blashill phoned Vanek when he was a free agent and made their pitch to get him to Detroit. They wanted him playing in front of the net. They loved the idea of another right-handed shot. They realize hes not a guy who needs 18 minutes per game to put up points. Right now, hes averaging 13:11, the lowest of his career. He has eight points in seven games. Its been a great fit.Am I as fast as Larkin or McDavid? Not even close, Vanek said. I never was and never will be. But I can read the game, I have hockey IQ -- which, to me, is something that is leaving the game a little.The Red Wings have started 6-2-0, in large part because of veterans Vanek and Green. Its important to note that while their even-strength save percentage and shooting percentage are near the top of the league, that wont continue. Detroit controls only 45.6 percent of its even-strength shot attempts, a rate that has to improve for it to keep winning. So, despite the early success, there are red flags for the Red Wings.But on Tuesday, Larkin joined the party with a two-goal game against the?Carolina Hurricanes.?They were his first goals of the season. Athanasiou scored for the second consecutive game, showing what it can look like when all generations are contributing for the Red Wings.Detroit has opted not to go all-in on the youth movement, and if theres a franchise that has earned the benefit of the doubt, its this one.The media wants a young game, they want the speed, they want the addiction, Ott said, before being interrupted momentarily.Dont blame it all on us, Steve.No, I think its true, he continued. Who is the model that built completely young and won everything? It hasnt happened. Why has that not happened? You tell me.Because successful teams need a mix of youth and experience. Its early, but the Red Wings believe they have the right mix. Theyre winning with veterans and young guns, they have a kid in forward?Anthony Mantha, who is banging on the door with six goals in five AHL games. They dont think Tyler Bertuzzi is too far behind him. Eventually Evgeny Svechnikov will be there, too.Theres a plan in place to keep the success going. No, the Red Wings are not interested in tearing it down. Just winning, as theyve done for two and a half decades. Perhaps, in Detroit, theyve earned the right to keep trying. ' ' '