BIG 'CAP THEME IT'S SERENA'S SONG.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer

Santa Anita, deprived of Cigar, is hanging its Big 'Cap on a new promotional hook. Track officials were relieved to hear Tuesday that champion filly Serena's Song will try to be the first horse of her gender to win the Santa Anita Handicap.

The marketing department took immediate advantage, scheduling television commercials that will hype the $1 million Big 'Cap on Saturday as a battle of the sexes.

"She's Plan B," said vice president for marketing Mark Stephens, who had built an advertising campaign around Cigar, including a 125,000-piece mailing to regular racegoers.

Stephens said he had hoped the presence of Cigar, the reigning Horse of the Year and winner of 13 races in a row, would increase Big 'Cap day attendance by 7,000 to 8,000 and produce record-setting wagering.

When Cigar was declared out of the race after sustaining a bruise and abscess in his right front hoof in Florida, the Big 'Cap was left with the likelihood of 11 or 12 participants, the most in a decade, but no real drawing card.

Then trainer D. Wayne Lukas, after conferring with Serena's Song owners Bob and Beverly Lewis on Monday night, announced the 4-year-old daughter of Rahy will attempt a historic victory.

Stephens had asked Lukas to announce the decision - to run or not to run - early in the week so the publicity machine could gear up.

"She takes a very vanilla race and puts chocolate syrup on it," Lukas said at his barn Tuesday morning. "She brings some controversy and discussion to it. Nobody will be talking about whether Helmsman can beat Alphabet Soup."

Helmsman, winner of the San Fernando and Strub stakes for 4-year-olds, was assigned a race-high 121 pounds, and Alphabet Soup, coming off victories over older horses in the Native Diver, San Pasqual and San Antonio, is next at 120 pounds. The rest of the weights: Richard Mandella-trained Afternoon Deelites 119 and Dare and Go 118; 1995 winner Urgent Request 117; Mr Purple and Score Quick 115; Serena's Song, Luthier Fever and The Key Rainbow 114; Cezind 112, and Just Java 111.

Serena's Song's assignment includes her five-pound allowance as the only filly in the race.

Thirty-six females have run in the 58 Big 'Caps. Next Move ('51) and Gamely ('69) finished second; Miss Grillo ('49) and Two Lea ('50) were third. Bayakoa was the most recent to try; she came in 10th and last in 1990.

Serena's Song's biggest hurdle may not be gender but distance. She defeated males in the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park and the Haskell at Saratoga as a 3-year-old. Those were 1-1/8-mile races. She tired to 16th in the Kentucky Derby and was upset by Golden Bri in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park in her only tries at 1-1/4 miles - the Big 'Cap route.

But Lukas said, "I think you're looking at a much stronger filly now." A workout Monday convinced Lukas that Serena's Song has "got a big race right in front of her."

The trainer said Cigar's withdrawal was a factor in his decision. He said the chance to earn a share of the big purse without winning was not.

"The only thing that would make it really successful," Lukas said, "is (winning)."

Notes: Luthier Fever, briefly without a trainer after Gary Jones split with the horse's owners late last week, landed in Ted West's barn Tuesday. . . . Musical jockeys: Alex Solis stays with Dare and Go, giving up Mr Purple (now Eddie Delahoussaye) and Cezind (now Rene Douglas). Douglas yields Luthier Fever to Brice Blanc and will be replaced aboard Score Quick. Others without riders Tuesday were Urgent Request (Chris Antley stays with Alphabet Soup) and The Key Rainbow (Gary Stevens stays with Serena's Song). . . .