Kentucky Derby 2019 Daily: Servis has two for major preps
Welcome to Horse Racing Nation’s Kentucky Derby Daily, which will each day leading up to the May 4 race at Churchill Downs detail all the news and notes related to contenders in one convenient space.
Trainer Jason Servis traveled to last year’s Kentucky Derby — his first — with an owner who wanted to enter, but a horse in Firenze Fire who preferred going about a quarter mile shorter than asked of him the first Saturday in May.
Firenze Fire, 11th at Churchill Downs, went on to win multiple one-turn stakes later in his 3-year-old season. Now Servis has hopes of returning for the 2019 Kentucky Derby with a pair of colts fit for the distance.
Recent Gulfstream Park winners Maximum Security and Final Jeopardy are under consideration for the March 30 Florida Derby (G1), Servis said, with the former the more likely of the two to stay in town for a major prep.
“I would like to split them up,” Servis said with both campaigned by Gary and Mary West, also the owners of unbeaten champion Game Winner.
Maximum Security, a son of the West’s New Year’s Day, actually ran for a tag in his Dec. 20 debut. He won by 9 3/4 lengths, beat winners the next time by 6 1/2 and stretched the margin to 18 1/4 on Feb. 20 in starter optional claiming company.
Servis said Maximum Security’s beginning to put weight back on after a big effort, one that left him “very concerned” the following week.
“He got knocked for a loop,” the trainer said. “The fact that he won by so far — there’s no reason for him to win by that far. I’m not trying to knock Irad (Ortiz Jr.), because I’m very close to him.
“I would have felt better if the horse could have run a 90 Beyer, or a 93, then jumped to 100.”
Servis plans to give Maximum Security his first open gallop Sunday since his most-recent win.
Final Jeopardy, by Street Sense, has won two of three starts, bouncing back from his only defeat suffered in the Limehouse Stakes to win last Sunday’s allowance optional claiming feature at Gulfstream Park.
Going a one-turn mile, he defeated, among others, well-regarded Todd Pletcher trainee Soldado; Award Winner; sibling of Grade 1 winner Oscar Performance; and Mr. Ankeny, who was in his own audition for the Derby trail.
“The horse is begging to run long,” Servis said. “I sprinted him again by choice — wanted to get two in him before he ran long, and he got plenty of spacing since that first sprint. He was sitting on a big race.”
A week after Gulfstream’s previous points prep, the Fountain of Youth (G2), the Nos. 1-4 finishers are all possible to return: Code of Honor, Bourbon War, Vekoma and Hidden Scroll. Additionally, trainer Kenny McPeek is training the Holy Bull (G2) winner Harvey Wallbanger up to the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby.
Over to Los Al
With Santa Anita Park’s main track still closed — the training track can’t accommodate workouts — a number of horses expected to ship for next weekend’s Rebel Stakes (G2) were put through their paces Saturday morning at nearby Los Alamitos.
West Point Thoroughbreds’ Gunmetal Gray breezed six furlongs in company in 1:12.60 for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who also intends to start Galilean in the March 16 race at Oaklawn Park.
Richard Mandella-trained Extra Hope clocked 6/8 of a mile in 1:12.00, while stablemate Omaha Beach showed no signs of being slowed by a recent quarter crack, recording the bullet in 1:10.
Trainer Bob Baffert is expected to breeze Game Winner and fellow Grade 1 hero Improbable on Sunday before making final decisions whether to send both for the Rebel.
The Rebel field
We’ll follow up Sunday whether Oaklawn Park officials anticipate getting the 20 needed declarations to split the Rebel Stakes into two $750,000 flights that would fully accommodate the California horsemen. It should be a close call.
Other scenarios? The San Felipe (G2) originally scheduled for Saturday could come back the final weekend of March; the March 24 Sunland Derby (G3) in New Mexico offers the same number of points as the Rebel; and the Louisiana Derby (G2) runs the week before at Fair Grounds.
Especially the big horses, Game Winner and Improbable, need to get going with their 3-year-old debuts. They were among 82 Rebel Stakes nominations posted Saturday.