Firenze Fire likely to target Gotham Stakes next

Firenze Fire, the half-length winner of Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 10, trainer Jason Servis said Sunday.

Servis said Firenze Fire would be nominated to the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes on Feb. 3, but he would only consider running the horse “If he’s coming over the webbing,” Servis said. “It’s safe to say we’ll do the Gotham.”

On a track that played kindly to front-runners, Firenze Fire was last of six, but only three lengths off the pace early under Manny Franco. He rallied four wide in the stretch and was eventually able to get by the pace-setting Seven Trumpets. Though the final time of 1:42.88 was pedestrian, Firenze Fire earned a respectable 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I thought he had a lot to do, but Manny got the job done,” Servis said by phone from Florida, where he watched the race via simulcast. “He ran against the bias and was hung way out there.”

Based on his victories in the Jerome and last October’s Grade 1 Champagne, Firenze Fire has 20 qualifying points toward the May 5 Kentucky Derby. Ron Lombardi, Firenze Fire's owner, said it is his dream to run in the Derby. Firenze Fire would likely need only a second-place finish in the Gotham to secure a spot in the Derby.

The Gotham, like the Jerome and last year’s Grade 1 Champagne which Firenze Fire also won, is a one-turn mile. That race offers 85 qualifying points to the top four finishers (50-20-10-5) toward the May 5 Kentucky Derby. That would mean the earliest Firenze Fire would attempt 1 1/8 miles would be the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 7.

“The way he runs, it looks like he’ll get it,” Servis said.

Though the weather has been harsh in New York this winter, Servis, who also has horses stabled at Palm Meadows in south Florida, is content to leave Firenze Fire at Belmont Park to train even though he won’t run again for eight weeks. Servis said he left Sunny Ridge in New York and in 2016 that horse won the Withers and ran fourth in the Gotham before a setback prevented him from running in the Wood.

“I don’t have any problem with staying in New York,” Servis said.

Meanwhile, Seven Trumpets, the Jerome runner-up, will likely return to trainer Dale Romans’ Gulfstream Park barn this week while his connections plot that colt’s next move. He did well to finish a clear second, five lengths ahead of third-place finisher Coltandmississippi, in the Jerome and then did gallop-out past Firenze Fire after the race. Jockey Paco Lopez said he didn’t feel Seven Trumpets liked the muddy surface.

“We definitely loved the way he galloped out,” Terry Finley, the president of West Point Thoroughbreds. “We always knew he was a nice horse.”

Finley said that Seven Trumpets “undeniably” earned a shot at another Kentucky Derby prep race and Finley mentioned races such as the Withers (Feb. 3 at Aqueduct), the Sam F. Davis (Feb. 10 at Tampa) and the Fountain of Youth (March 3 at Gulfstream) among the options.