Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Servis can start meet strong
Trainer Jason Servis hit at a .452 win percentage at the Belmont spring/summer meet, and looks like he could kick off the Belmont fall meet with similar success.
Servis will send out two starters on Friday’s opening-day card, including Miz Mayhem in the featured $100,000 Christiecat Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going six furlongs on the turf. Belmont’s fall meet runs 36 days through Oct. 28.
Miz Mayhem will be making her first start for Servis after winning five consecutive turf sprints for trainer Eddie Plesa, Servis’s brother-in-law. Plesa is based in South Florida and sent Servis this horse a couple of weeks ago. Miz Mayhem was credited with a half-mile workout Monday at Monmouth Park in 51.80 seconds.
All of Miz Mayhem’s victories have come at five to 5 1/2 furlongs. The Christiecat is run at six.
“I asked [Plesa] if he thought she could go three-quarters,” Servis said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. He sent her to me and said ‘Train her like you own her.’ ”
Actually, Miz Mayhem is owned by Laurie Plesa, Eddie’s wife and Servis’s sister.
“I can’t screw this up,” Servis said.
The Christiecat, which will go as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 1:30 p.m., drew a field of 10 for turf and one main track-only entrant.
Broadway Run, who won the Coronation Cup on July 30 at Saratoga, worked three furlongs in 38.35 on Monday morning over the Oklahoma turf course for trainer John Terranova.
Five horses Broadway Run defeated in the Coronation Cup are back in the Christiecat field, including Lady Suebee, Tesora, Closer Still, Mominou, and Factorofwon.
Kitten’s Covergirl, Souper Striking, and Streetlady complete the field.
On Saturday, Servis plans to send out World of Trouble and Reed Kan in the $100,000 Allied Forces for 3-year-old males on turf.
World of Trouble is coming off a 1 3/4-length victory in the Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga in his turf debut, beating stablemate Fig Jelly, who will miss this race due to a temperature.
Rounding out the Allied Forces field will be Colonel Tom, Dirty, Gidu, Like What I See, Totally Boss, and Weather Report.
Lynch eyes Woodbine Mile
Trainer Brian Lynch was impressed enough with Oscar Performance’s half-mile work on the turf Monday morning that he is now seriously considering running him in the Grade 1, $800,000 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 15.
Oscar Performance, who was pulled up and vanned off as the favorite in the Grade 1 Arlington Million on Aug. 11, worked a half-mile in 48.01 seconds Monday morning over the Oklahoma turf course in Saratoga.
Under jockey Jose Ortiz, Oscar Performance began the work about four lengths off stablemate High Promise, a recent maiden winner at Saratoga, and finished on even terms while getting his last quarter in 23.33. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.56.
As a stakes horse, Oscar Performance was permitted to work inside the orange traffic cones, referred to as dogs, that other horses must work around.
“We’re nominated to it. We’ll see how it comes up – it’d definitely give you the confidence to think about it off that move this morning,” Lynch said of the Woodbine Mile. “His body language in his gallops says he’s in good order.”
The work was the second for Oscar Performance since the Million and since having undergone an examination at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington before rejoining Lynch’s Saratoga stable.
If he runs Oscar Performance in the Woodbine Mile, he can keep him and Heart to Heart separated before the Breeders’ Cup. Heart to Heart is being pointed to the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 6 at Keeneland.
Easy half-mile for Diversify
Twenty-four hours before stepping on the van to head back to his regular home at Belmont Park, Diversify was given the opportunity to stretch his legs a little, working an easy half-mile in 50.19 seconds shortly after the renovation break Monday at Saratoga.
As is customary with almost all workers from trainer Rick Violette’s barn, Diversify broke off at the three-eighths pole and breezed a furlong past the wire into the clubhouse turn. He galloped out with excellent energy into and around the bend, completing five-eighths in 1:02.97 before easing up threequarters of a mile in 1:16.98.
“Just maintenance, a chance to blow off some steam,” Violette said. “Same as last week, just a little farther. Now we might wait, maybe two-minute lick him a little bit, then he’ll have three breezes” before his next start.
Violette opted to bypass the Woodward here last weekend to await the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 29 at Belmont, a race Diversify won last year by a length over Keen Ice. Diversify won his second Grade 1 race earlier this summer with a popular, wire-to-wire, 3 1/2-length decision over Mind Your Biscuits in the Whitney.
Violette said he and owner Ralph Evans would sit down and decide Diversify’s status for the Breeders’ Cup Classic following the Gold Cup.