1-1-18 - Jason Servis, Firenze Fire kick off derby prep season

[Secretriat34]

While Jason Servis wondered about Firenze Fire's status for the Jerome (on 1-1-18), the Champagne winner turned in a :49.66 half-mile work Dec. 27 (seventh fastest of 23 at the distance) that has him on course to start 2018 at the Big A on New Years Day.

John Servis, Jasons brother, is most noted for the almost undefeated triple crown winner Smarty Jones, who lost that honor by a head to Birdsong in 2004 as a stunned Belmont crowd fell to silence as they watched Smarty falter.

While Jason has had some success on the trail, it is Firenze Fire that offers him hope in the winter of 2017 as he looks forward to the derby grossup, #144, in the spring of next year.

In 2016, Jason Servis had a Triple Crown contender in Sunny Ridge, who was second in the Champagne (G1) at 2 and won the Withers Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct in January before he finished fourth in the Gotham Stakes (G3) and missed the spring classics.
His plans for Firenze Fire are similar - leave him in New York and look at the Withers (Feb. 3), Gotham (March 10), or Wood (G2,April 7) at Aqueduct. After the Jerome, Servis said he'll get one or maybe two more starts before Derby 144.

Firenze Fire (Poseidons Warrior) a Triple Crown candidate with three wins in five career starts, including wins in the Champagne and Sanford Stakes(G3) at Saratoga Race Course, is out of the unraced broodmare My Every Wish,

While Firenze Fire was no factor in the Juvenile, perhaps the Del Mar surface was not to his liking; Good Magic, the $1 million yearling he beat in the Champagne (G1) powered to a 4 1/4-length victory over a field of 12 of the year's best 2-year-olds. Add in a victory in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes(G2) by Enticed, who was third in the Champagne,and Firenze Fire's triumph takes on the look of an impressive win in one of the year's key races for 2-year olds.

can he bounce back off the Breeders' Cup ? and will the lack of stamina in his dosage profile prove to be his undoing ?

Champagne (G1) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTBg3gH3f-0
Watch FF power past Good Magic, the Juvy champ in deep stretch.