Restoring Hope, controversial Belmont runner, changes barns
Restoring Hope, whose run up to the first turn of last year’s Belmont Stakes sparked controversy following Justify’s Triple Crown win, has received a change in scenery for his 4-year-old season.
Formerly trained by Bob Baffert, the son of Giant’s Causeway is now in the care of Jason Servis, who says he’ll be looking for an allowance as a return spot once Restoring Hope is ready to race.
The Gary and Mary West homebred has posted three workouts at Florida’s Palm Meadows Training Center since going to Servis, each of them easy three-furlong breezes.
“I don’t know why he came to me,” Servis said. “...They just send them.”
Restoring Hope has won just one of six starts but was highly regarded by Baffert, who after a Feb. 2, 2018, maiden special weight win declared the colt on the Kentucky Derby trail. When the Sunland Derby (G3) came up over-subscribed, the son of Giant’s Causeway shipped and ran third in Aqueduct’s Wood Memorial (G2).
From there, Restoring Hope ran on Kentucky Derby day, finishing 12th in the sloppy Pat Day Mile (G3), and then either got rank or helped clear stablemate Justify’s way to the lead — depends who you ask — in the Belmont Stakes.
As for whether Servis has a future stakes runner on his hands, “I don’t work my horses fast,” he said, “so I really won’t know until I run him.”
Servis said he has trained for the Wests only a “couple” years, but they have sent him some formidable runners, with the 3-year-olds Maximum Security and Final Jeopardy both on track to start in final Kentucky Derby preps.
“It’s exciting, especially when the babies come in,” the trainer said. “They’re well-bred. They look great. It gets the whole barn excited.”
Servis also read a recent San Diego Union-Tribune story on his client, Gary West, highlighting his Derby aspirations with the unbeaten Baffert trainee Game Winner — and his service in the Vietnam War that left West promising if he got out alive, he’d be sure to give back throughout his life.
“It kind of gives you a whole new respect for the guy,” Servis said. “I never knew he went to Vietnam. He was in the trenches, too.”
As for Servis’ other stakes runners, he’s mulling options for sprinters World of Trouble and Call Paul, who was considered for the Gotham Stakes (G3)
“We were toying with it,” Servis said.
Firenze Fire, a multiple stakes winner who ran in last year’s Kentucky Derby, is on the work tab, too.
“I’d like to get him started before Belmont,” Servis said. “I just haven’t picked a spot out yet.”