A Different Style will stick to sprinting

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It was a pretty good week for trainer John Servis. On Feb. 4, his beloved Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. Six days later, the Servis-trained 3-year-old A Different Style proved victorious in the Jimmy Winkfield at Aqueduct.

While Eagles fans might be dreaming of a dynasty, Servis is not dreaming of the Kentucky Derby with A Different Style, who will remain sprinting and who will likely point to the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct on April 7.

“I think I’m just going to wait for the Bay Shore, unless he tells me different,” Servis said Monday.

Servis said he would nominate A Different Style – as well as Diamond King and Wentz – to the Grade 3, $350,000 Gotham, a one-turn mile race at Aqueduct on March. 10. In the seven-furlong Jimmy Winkfield, over a sealed, muddy track, A Different Style got loose on the lead under Kendrick Carmouche and won by three lengths while earning a 78 Beyer Speed Figure.

The win enabled A Different Style to bounce back from a fourth-place finish in the Heft Stakes at Laurel on Dec. 30.

“He had a throat issue,” Servis said, explaining the bad performance in the Heft. “We’re good now.”

While A Different Style will remain sprinting, Servis said that he may opt to stretch out Diamond King in distance for his next start. Diamond King, who won the Heft when in the barn of Butch Reid, finished third in the Grade 3 Swale at Gulfstream Park, beaten 3 3/4 lengths by Strike Power. Diamond King encountered traffic trouble early in the Swale, his first start for Servis following a private sale.

“I felt a whole lot better after the race than I did before the race,” Servis said. “I didn’t have the horse very long, I really didn’t know what to expect. I’m anxious to get him going a little farther and might stretch out to two turns in his next start.”

Meanwhile, Servis plans to run Wentz – named for the Eagles quarterback who got hurt late in the season and missed the playoffs and Super Bowl – in Saturday’s Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel. Wentz ducked out at the eighth pole and finished second in the Frank Whiteley Jr. Stakes at Laurel on Jan. 27.

“I got to put some blinkers on him,” Servis said. “He’s got some talent, I just got to get him focused and paying attention.”