John C. Servis (born October 25, 1958, in Charles Town, West Virginia) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer who was relatively unknown until May 2004 when his horse Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby. The colt then went on to win the Preakness Stakes further increasing Servis' reputation. [1] Servis' Cathryn Sophia won 2016 Kentucky Oaks, winning by 2-3/4 lengths over Land Over Sea. [2]
In 2018, Servis won his first Breeders' Cup race with Jaywalk in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. [3]
Servis trains horses primarily out of Parx Casino and Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
He was born into a family involved in the Thoroughbred racing industry. As a boy, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his father worked as a jockey.
Servis trained his 1,000th winner on May 1, 2007 at Philadelphia Park.
John is also the brother of trainer Jason Servis and brother-in-law to Florida Thoroughbred trainer, Edward Plesa.
The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, it expanded to two days. All sites have been in the United States, except in 1996, when the races were at the Woodbine Racetrack in Canada.
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies is a 1+1⁄16-mile thoroughbred horse race on dirt for two-year-old fillies run annually since 1984 at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships in early November.
Darrell Wayne Lukas is an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He has won twenty Breeders' Cup races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses have won 25 year-end Eclipse Awards. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007.
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John W. Sadler is an American horse trainer in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. He currently has over 2,600 race wins, including the 2018 Breeders' Cup Classic with Accelerate, who was subsequently named American Horse of the Year. He has won multiple training titles at Santa Anita Park, Del Mar and the now defunct Hollywood Park. Sadler trained Flightline, the winner of the 2022 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps was an American financier, Thoroughbred racehorse industry executive, and horse breeder. Widely known by the nickname "Dinny," he was chairman of the family's Bessemer Trust until retiring in 1994, and served as its vice chairman.
The 2017 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 34th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 13 races, all of which were Grade I, took place on November 3 and 4 at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California and were telecast by NBC and NBC Sports. The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North America racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December.
The 2018 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 35th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 14 races, all but one of which were Grade I, took place on November 2 and 3 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The races were telecast by NBCSN on Friday and early Saturday, and by NBC later on Saturday. The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North American racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December. The event typically determines champions in many of the Eclipse Award divisions, although it was missing the eventual Horse of the Year, Triple Crown champion Justify, who was retired in July.
Jaywalk is a Thoroughbred filly racehorse who in 2018 won the $2,000,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, the world's richest race of its class. She is trained by John Servis for owners Cash is King, LLC and D J Stable, LL.
Sardula was an American Thoroughbred racemare who, as a two-year-old in 1993 finished second by a nose in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies then won the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes. At age three, Sardula's wins included the prestigious Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.
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