Jerome Stakes matches Servis and son

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Blane Servis didn’t accompany his father to Aqueduct on Jan. 3, 2004, when the John Servis-trained Smarty Jones won the Count Fleet Stakes, kicking off a 3-year-old campaign that would include victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but a kick-in-the-gut one-length defeat in the Belmont Stakes.

Back then, there were other things more appealing for a 16-year-old kid to do than spend a day at the Big A.

After years of working for his father and on the starting gate at Parx Racing, Blane Servis, now 28, is about to enter his third full year training on his own. On Saturday, he most certainly will accompany his father to Aqueduct, where both men will run horses in the Grade 3, $200,000 Jerome Stakes, now the first race for 3-year-olds on this circuit that could lead to the Kentucky Derby.

Blane Servis will send out Let Me Go First, a recent maiden winner at Parx, while John Servis will saddle Bird of Trey, coming off a dominant victory in the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes, the same race Smarty Jones won to end his 2-year-old season.

Blane Servis, who has won 19 races from 128 starters since going out on his own in July 2013, said he has run horses against his father on numerous occasions, “but nothing like this.” In fact, when Let Me Go First won a maiden race by 3 1/4 lengths on Nov. 22, the horse who finished second, Viva La Kid, was trained by John Servis.

“One of my buddies from Arkansas called me and said, ‘How does it feel to have your son kick your butt?’ ” John Servis, 57, said. “I told him, ‘It feels pretty good, actually.’ ”

It didn’t feel too good that June afternoon in 2004 at Belmont Park when Birdstone ran by Smarty Jones in the final furlong to deny Servis and his horse the Triple Crown. Coincidentally, Bird of Trey is a son of Birdstone. He is bred and owned by Jay and Rita Young.

Servis remembers getting a call from Jay Young, for whom Servis had trained a horse a few years ago.

“He calls me and says they have a Pennsylvania-bred they’d like to send me if I have room,” Servis said. “I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ He said, ‘There’s a catch here – he’s by Birdstone.’ I said, ‘I don’t care. If he can run, I don’t care who he’s by.’ ”

Bird of Trey has shown that he can run. He won his second start, a race restricted to Pennsylvania-breds, by 11 lengths. After a troubled trip in a short field when second in the Hall of Fame Stakes and a dull second in an open allowance race, Bird of Trey galloped to a 7 1/4-length victory in the Pennsylvania Nursery.

Servis said Bird of Trey had come out of his Oct. 26 allowance loss with a foot issue.

“You could see a change in him as soon as we changed shoes on him, and he started training like he was before,” Servis said. “He jumped up and ran a big race. He’s gone forward, too. He’s a nice colt.”

Let Me Go First is a gelding by Paddy O’Prado owned and bred by Spendthrift Farm. He is a half-brother to Bolo, who finished 12th in the 2015 Kentucky Derby but probably is a better turf horse.

Let Me Go First finished fifth sprinting in his debut Sept. 20 at Parx. After running third in his first try around two turns Nov. 1, he overcame post 11 to gain his first win Nov. 22.

Blane Servis said Let Me Go First is still a bit immature, especially around the starting gate.

“He’s had problems the last couple of times going into the starting gate,” Servis said. “We’ve been schooling him a lot. It goes back to him learning and just being a kid. This is a big step up for him, like it is for most of the horses, but I think he’s going to be very competitive.”

Blane Servis was asked what he remembered most about Smarty Jones’s Triple Crown season.

“When he ran by Lion Heart in the Derby and he started separating himself from the field,” Servis said. “I think that moment was probably the greatest one – that feeling you get when you know your horse is going to win something big.”

Perhaps Saturday could be the start of something big for father or son.

Sunny Ridge waits for Withers

The Jerome will not be a total family affair as Jason Servis, John’s brother and Blane’s uncle, will not run Grade 1 Champagne runner-up Sunny Ridge in the mile-and-70-yard race. Instead, Sunny Ridge will be pointed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 30.

Sunny Ridge, a gelding by Holy Bull, finished second to Exaggerator by a neck in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs on Nov. 22. After a rest on a Kentucky farm, Sunny Ridge returned to Belmont Park, where he has resumed training.

“The Delta race was really good,” Servis said. “It was a long trip down there. He had to fly to Memphis, then to Houston, then van to Delta. It was hard.”

Jason Servis said he has decided to keep Sunny Ridge in New York “to duck the heavy heads” on the Derby trail.

Sunny Ridge is owned and bred by Dennis Drazin, who is part of the Darby Development group that runs Monmouth Park, making the Haskell in August as important as the Kentucky Derby for the gelding.