Return to Ellis can help Hot Mash regain form
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Hot Mash’s most recent start turned into a hot mess, but if she recaptures her summer 2025 Ellis Park form, she’ll win the featured seventh race Friday at Ellis.
Hot Mash, seven other fillies, and one mare went into the Friday feature, a first-level allowance carded for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. Hot Mash debuted on Aug. 11, 2025 and scored an eye-catching course and distance win, running off by almost eight lengths facing maiden turf sprinters. She went to Woodbine and finished second, beaten a half-length, in the Grade 1 Natalma over one mile – and not much has gone right since.
Hot Mash returned from a winter break in a first-level turf allowance at Keeneland in April, a race carded for 5 1/2 furlongs. She ran closer to six. Breaking from an outside post, Hot Mash came up to the turn at least five paths off the fence and never got over. She gave up a ton of ground around the bend, got spun even wider for the stretch run, and still came within 3 1/4 lengths of the winner.
“I actually thought she ran really good,” trainer John Servis said.
Once again, Servis stretched Hot Mash out to a route, but this time she ran dismally, all but eased in a June 4 Churchill Downs allowance. Nothing obviously went wrong on the surface, but something did go wrong.
“She came out of it with a solid excuse, and that’s why she’s been off for a while,” Servis said. “I still think she’s a stake filly by all means. We’re pretty high on her.”
For what it’s worth, none of Hot Mash’s rivals have reached the 80 Beyer Speed Figure she earned in her debut.
Wisconsin Gal did get a 79 Beyer Speed Figure scoring sharply at Colonial Downs last month in a starter allowance, just her second grass race among 22 starts. She’s well drawn on the outside and would offer value at her 8-1 morning line.
Omaha Bay hasn’t raced since May 31, when she made her turf debut at Churchill in a race at this class level, beaten just three lengths by graded-stakes class Sapphire Beach. And were the Friday feature to rain off turf, Omaha Bay has dirt credentials that make her a likely contender.
As for Servis, the longtime East Coast-based trainer has established a firm foothold on the Kentucky circuit. While he retains a full barn at Parx Racing in Pennsylvania, Servis has 20 stalls at Turfway Park, and he has already sent out as many Ellis starters this meet, 10, as during the entire 2025 meeting.
Servis won a pair of maiden 2-year-old races on July 31. Marblehead captured a restricted maiden sprint on dirt, Glycogen posted a good-looking grass route score that almost certainly exceeds the low 49 Beyer affixed to her performance. Glycogen, by Jack Christopher, rallied strongly for fourth debuting in a turf sprint, where she galloped out far in front past the wire.
“I’ve liked her from Day One,” Servis said. “I thought the five and a half would be a little sharp for her, but I thought she was good enough she might win anyway.”
Glycogen could show up in the $750,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies or run in a first-level allowance at the Kentucky Downs meet, Servis said.
Brilliant Berti back to Mint Millions
Brilliant Berti, racing in blinkers for the first time, broke a six-race losing streak when he landed the $300,000 Green River Island Stakes on Sunday at Ellis, earning a second start in the $2.5 million Mint Millions at Kentucky Downs, trainer Cherie DeVaux confirmed Wednesday.
Brilliant Berti had finished fourth three times and fifth once in what had been a disappointing 5-year-old campaign, but broke through Sunday with a 1 3/4-length victory. He finished a strong closing fourth in the 2025 Mint Millions and the summer before won the $1.5 million Gun Runner Stakes over the Kentucky Downs course.
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