Fresh off big year, Servis barn excited about Jaywalk in 2019

John Servis might never top his accomplishments of 2004, but he came close last year.

He won 111 races, his most since 1989. His stable earnings of $5.89 million were his best since 2004, when Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. And he won the Grade 1 Frizette and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Jaywalk, who in the coming weeks is expected to be voted 2-year-old filly champion.

For good measure, Servis won his first training title at Parx, where he has been stabled since 1985.

Jaywalk’s Breeders’ Cup victory puts Servis in a club of his own. He is the only trainer not in the Hall of Fame to have won a Derby, a Preakness, a Kentucky Oaks – he won with Cathryn Sophia in 2016 – and a Breeders’ Cup race.

“People ask me about the Hall of Fame, but I really don’t think about it,” said Servis, 60. “The Breeders’ Cup was huge, though. It’s something I’ve always wanted on my résumé. I don’t run in those big races just to run.”

Indeed. Smarty Jones is the only horse Servis has ever started in the Kentucky Derby. The same can be said of Cathryn Sophia and the Oaks. He is 1 for 2 in the Preakness and now has a .500 batting average in the Breeders’ Cup.

In 2000, Servis’s first big horse, Jostle, won the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan, Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, Grade 1 Alabama, and Grade 2 Cotillion. He ran her against older rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs, but she finished ninth at 8-1.

“When we got to Churchill, she just went the wrong direction on us,” Servis said.

Jaywalk is owned by Servis’s two top clients, the Cash Is King Stable of Chuck Zacney and the D. J. Stable of Leonard Green and family. Servis signed the ticket for her at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale. She is part of the stallion Cross Traffic’s first crop.

“We liked her from Day 1, but I didn’t expect this,” Servis said. “We loved her at the sale and paid a lot of money for her when you think about it. We gave $190,000, and she’s by a first-crop sire who stood for $7,500 the year we bought her.”

Jaywalk spent her 2-year-old season at Parx but is now at the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida. Her first breeze of the year could come this weekend. Servis has March 2, the date of the Grade 2, $200,000 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park, circled on the calendar as her 3-year-old debut.

“I was always [eager] to stretch her out, and she’s shown a lot of heart,” Servis said. “She just has that high cruising speed.”

Servis won 71 races at Parx in 2018, three more than the husband-and-wife training team of Mike and Patricia Farro, who led the standings the previous two years. The result is somewhat surprising because Servis’s stable is not built to win titles. His stock and trade is developing young horses.

“How did I win the title with all the 2-year-olds I have every year?” Servis asked rhetorically.

The title is the second of Servis’s career. In 1989, he tied with Joe Orseno as the leading trainer at Garden State Park.

“I had a bunch of claiming horses that year,” Servis said. “It was my first big break. I picked up an owner, and my stable went from like 10 horses to 40.”

Servis said he didn’t follow the Parx trainers’ race closely.

“What it comes down to is I’m happy for my crew,” he said. “They’re excited about it, and they work so hard. I’m happy for them and my owners. It gives them a little bragging rights.”

Servis currently has about 70 horses, a high for him. In addition to his Parx stable, he kept 15 to 20 horses in Florida following last year’s winter meet.

Through Tuesday, Servis has 1,757 career victories from 10,016 starts, a win average of 18 percent. He has stable earnings of more than $57.4 million.

◗ Frankie Pennington won his fifth consecutive Parx riding title in 2018 with 153 wins, 37 more than runner-up Mychel Sanchez, who also had an excellent season. The title was Pennington’s sixth at Parx. He also led the standings in 2006.

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