In 1981, Glorious Song was assigned to trainer John Cairns. Although her 1981 racing season was hampered by various problems, she still earned a second-place finish in the Beldame Stakes and won the Grade 1 Santa Maria Handicap at Santa Anita Park as well as her second Dominion Day Stakes, in which she set a Woodbine track record for a mile and one-eighth. That year, her career earnings topped the $1 million figure, the first for a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. She earned her second straight Sovereign Award for Champion Older Female Horse.