Servis saving Sunny Ridge's speed for when it counts

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When it comes to his 3-year-old Sunny Ridge, trainer Jason Servis doesn’t feel the need for speed.

While the majority of trainers with Kentucky Derby candidates put their horses through workouts on a weekly basis, Servis takes the slow-and-steady approach with Sunny Ridge. In lieu of fast works, Sunny Ridge simply puts in a few strong gallops between starts. Thus far, it is a method that has worked well for Sunny Ridge, a gelding by Holy Bull who won the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 30 and will be among the favorites for Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes here.

“In my opinion, all I have to do is stay out of his way, keep him a little sweet, and lead him over,” Servis said in a recent interview. “That’s the way I look at it: try not to screw him up or anything. Rather than going a half out of the gate in 47, I can [gallop], get him back in one piece, and hopefully he’ll do the rest.”

In addition to winning the Withers in his 3-year-old debut, Sunny Ridge at 2 won the Sapling Stakes and finished second in the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 3 Delta Jackpot.

Servis said Sunny Ridge underwent a regular training regimen leading up to his first start, which came last June in a maiden $40,000 claiming race at Monmouth.

Servis said he doesn’t take this approach in training all of his horses but typically doesn’t do much speed work with those who run long. A few years ago, Servis trained the multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Hangover Kid, a turf horse who won the Grade 2 Bowling Green and was beaten just 3 3/4 lengths in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“I don’t think there’s any science to it,” Servis said. “Keep them maintained and lead them over.”

Servis, 58, said his way of training is borne out of 35 years in the business, including many years spent galloping horses. He didn’t take out his trainer’s license until December 2001, when owner Dennis Drazin asked Servis – who worked afternoons as a valet at New Jersey tracks – if he wanted to take a small string to New York for the winter. Drazin, who is the owner and breeder of Sunny Ridge, had horses with trainer Peter Fortay, for whom Servis was working in the early 2000s.

“He’s honest, he’s loyal, he’s got a lot of integrity,” Drazin said of Servis. “He had a good feel for a horse when he was exercising them, did the right thing by the horses, put the health of the horse first over any other issue. Really a class act. I took a liking to him and wanted to see him succeed in the business.”

Servis’s first winner came on March 13, 2002, at Aqueduct with a maiden claimer named Hattab Be You, a half-brother to Holy Bull. Holy Bull is the sire of Sunny Ridge. Servis galloped horses for Jimmy Croll, the trainer of Holy Bull and, earlier in the horse’s career, Hattab Be You. Croll, whom Servis considered a dear friend, died in 2008. On the desk in his office, Servis has a picture of Croll holding Holy Bull.

“There’s just kind of some karma there, I think,” Servis said.

Servis, who has won 775 races, splits his stable between New York and Florida. Servis stays mostly in Florida while his longtime assistant Henry Argueta runs the barn at Belmont, where Sunny Ridge has been based since mid-December.

“Henry’s been with me 16 years,” Servis said. “I took him out of the stalls. He was a groom for me, and I cloned him, I like to say. I taught him everything I know. He’s more like a son really.”

Argueta said he believes Sunny Ridge has improved since winning the Withers by three-quarters of a length over Vorticity.

“He’s got more muscle,” Argueta said. “Physically, he looks better.”

Following the Withers, both Servis and Drazin said the Kentucky Derby is not the objective for Sunny Ridge. Drazin heads the group that runs Monmouth Park and is focused more on the Haskell Invitational at that track in late July. Drazin is leery of how much the Derby – with typically a 20-horse field – could take out of his gelding.

Drazin said that if his horse runs in a Triple Crown race, it more likely would be the Preakness. Regarding the Derby, Servis said he’s inclined to take a wait-and-see approach.

“It’s really easy,” Servis said. “If he takes us there, we’re going. If he wins the Gotham and comes back and wins the Wood [Memorial] by four, I guess we’re going.”

Whatever race Servis points Sunny Ridge toward, he won’t be in a hurry to get there.