Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
No Kentucky Derby for A Different Style
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It was a pretty good week for trainer John Servis. On Feb. 4, his beloved Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. Six days later, the Servis-trained 3-yearold A Different Style proved victorious in the Jimmy Winkfield at Aqueduct.
While Eagles fans might be dreaming of a dynasty, Servis is not dreaming of the Kentucky Derby with A Different Style, who will remain sprinting and likely point to the Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct on April 7.
“I think I’m just going to wait for the Bay Shore, unless he tells me different,” Servis said Monday.
Servis said he would nomi- nate A Different Style – as well as Diamond King and Wentz – to the Grade 3, $350,000 Gotham, a one-turn mile race at Aqueduct on March. 10. In the sevenfurlong Jimmy Winkfield, over a sealed, muddy track, A Different Style got loose on the lead under Kendrick Carmouche and won by three lengths while earning a 78 Beyer Speed Figure.
The win enabled A Different Style to bounce back from a fourth-place finish in the Heft Stakes at Laurel on Dec. 30.
“He had a throat issue,” Servis said, explaining the bad performance in the Heft. “We’re good now.”
While A Different Style will remain sprinting, Servis said that he may opt to stretch out Diamond King in distance for his next start. Diamond King, who won the Heft when in the barn of Butch Reid, finished third in the Grade 3 Swale at Gulfstream Park, beaten 3 3/4 lengths by Strike Power. Diamond King encountered traffic trouble early in the Swale, his first start for Servis following a private sale.
“I felt a whole lot better after the race than I did before the race,” Servis said. “I didn’t have the horse very long, I really didn’t know what to expect. I’m anxious to get him going a little farther and might stretch out to two turns in his next start.”
Meanwhile, Servis plans to run Wentz – named for the Eagles quarterback who got hurt late in the season and missed the playoffs and Super Bowl – in Saturday’s Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel. Wentz ducked out at the eighth pole and finished second in the Frank Whiteley Jr. Stakes at Laurel on Jan. 27.
My Boy Tate staying home
Trainer Michelle Nevin said she thought about running My Boy Tate in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 General George Handicap at Laurel Park, but ultimately decided to keep the New York-bred gelding home and point to Monday’s $100,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes for statebreds.
My Boy Tate has strung together four consecutive victories – all in statebred company – including a three-length score in the Say Florida Sandy Stakes here last month. Last Saturday, My Boy Tate breezed five furlongs in 1:01.77 over the Belmont training track.
“He’s done well, I’m very happy with him,” Nevin said.
Meanwhile, Nevin’s Kentucky-bred 4-year-old gelding Skyler’s Scramjet won his second consecutive race, taking a third-level allowance race by one length over a sealed muddy track Saturday. Having gone through his conditions, Skyler’s Scramjet may go next in the Grade 3, $250,000 Tom Fool Handicap here March 10, Nevin said.
Skyler’s Scramjet has won three of his last four starts, with his lone loss in that time frame being a fifth-place finish in an allowance race under Manny Franco here Nov. 26.
“Right out of the gates he got squished and Manny had no choice but to take hold of him, and I think that got the horse disoriented,” Nevin said.
In his last two victories, both with Dylan Davis aboard, Skyler’s Scramjet has sat off horses early in the race.
“The older he’s getting the more settled he’s getting, so maybe that’s what he was looking to do all along,” Nevin said.
Gargan, Lalman suspended
Trainers Danny Gargan and Dennis Lalman were both issued suspensions and fines by the New York Gaming Commission for medication violations.
Gargan was suspended 10 days and fined $1,000 for an overage of phenylbutazone in the system of the horse Playwright, who won a New Yorkbred maiden $40,000 claiming race at Aqueduct on Dec. 6. Bute is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory used to relieve pain.
Gargan’s suspension was reduced to seven days for waiving his right of appeal. He will begin serving the suspension Sunday.
Lalman was suspended 30 days and fined $1,500 after a post-race test revealed the presence of the drug diclofenac in the system of Alaapatique after he finished second on Dec. 15 at Aqueduct. Diclofenac is a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory used in horses to control pain and inflammation found in hocks, knees, fetlocks, or pastern joints. The stewards’ ruling said the penalty is reflective of the fact Lalman used the medication Surpass, a topical cream that contains diclofenac, without a prescription as required.
Lalman has appealed the suspension.