Servis, enjoying big year, points World of Trouble to Troy Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – “It’s been a hell of a year,” trainer Jason Servis said Monday. And the year is only half over.

Servis will be at Saratoga this week to kick off the second half of a campaign during which he has already won 79 races for purses totaling nearly $5 million and 15 stakes, seven of them graded. And those imposing figures do not count the one that got away, Maximum Security’s apparent victory and subsequent controversial disqualification in the Kentucky Derby.

Servis has won 21 races over the last two seasons at Saratoga. He’ll kick off the 2019 meet by sending out the likely favorite, Call Paul, in Thursday’s opening-day co-feature, the Grade 3 Quick Call. And he’ll have plenty more ammunition as the meet progresses.

Servis said he is pointing his versatile multiple Grade 1-winning sprinter World of Trouble to the 5 1/2-furlong, Grade 3 Troy on Aug. 3. World of Trouble is coming off a victory in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Belmont Park that gave him a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. World of Trouble has won seven of his last eight starts, including the Grade 1 Carter on dirt, his only loss during that span a heartbreaking neck setback to Stormy Liberal in the 2018 BC Turf Sprint.

“It’s not definite, but I think after talking to [owner Michael Dubb] that for now, the plan with him is to stay on the turf,” Servis said. “His numbers on the turf are just better than they are on dirt, and the Breeders’ Cup called me after the Jaipur to tell me the Turf Sprint this year at Santa Anita will be run at five furlongs, not 6 1/2 on the downhill course, which is a plus for us.”

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Servis said the Grade 1 Vanderbilt on July 27 is likely next for Firenze Fire, with the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 24 the primary goal for Final Jeopardy.

Multiple Grade 3 winner Firenze Fire won the six-furlong Runhappy Stakes by nearly five lengths on May 27 before finishing fifth while stretching out to a mile last time in the Grade 1 Metropolitan. Final Jeopardy comes off a second-place finish behind Code of Honor in last Saturday’s Grade 3 Dwyer.

“I was really proud of his effort the other day. We just caught a killer, that’s all,” Servis said of Final Jeopardy’s performance in the one-mile Dwyer. “But I think we’ll turn him back to seven furlongs next time.”

Servis also said that if all goes well for Maximum Security in the Haskell, then in all likelihood, he would ship the Florida Derby winner right to Saratoga from his current base at Monmouth Park to prepare for the Travers on Aug. 24.