Serv’ing Notice

by Heather Likins 

    When Blane Servis finally decided to hang out his shingle as a public trainer, he had plenty of family history to fall back on. His father, John Servis trained dual-Classic winner Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality) and a pair of uncles enjoyed graded-stakes success this year. Servis himself has gotten off to a solid start as a trainer and his success continued Sunday with Daniel Cassella’s homebred Insane Monk (Ecclesiastic) becoming his eighth 2014 winner and ninth winner overall from just 53 career starters when he took a Pennsylvania-bred maiden special weight at Parx Nov. 16. The Bensalem-based conditioner is winning at a 20% clip–through Sunday–despite limited runners and currently fields a stable of nine. 

Born in Sicklerville, New Jersey, Blane, 26, spent most of his formative years in Bensalem, where he ultimately took out his trainer’s license in July of 2013. 

“I pretty much grew up in Pennsylvania,” commented Servis. “We’d travel sometimes with my dad. I lived in Florida for a couple years when I was a lot younger. I lived down in Arkansas for a year.” 

Servis held other positions at the track, but he always had it in the back of his mind that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. 

“My dad is a trainer and I’ve been around horses all my life,” said Servis. “I worked at the starting gate for a number of years here at Parx and I learned a lot being an assistant for my dad. I was really fully on my own the last six or seven months, maybe a couple months longer.” 

Servis had plenty of support when he made the decision to go out on his own. Besides his father John, he counts on uncles Jason Servis who saddled Hangover Kid (Lemon Drop Kid) to victory in this year’s GII Bowling Green H., and Eddie Plesa, Jr.–who is his father’s brother-in-law–also found success with 2014 GI Woodward S. winner and GI Preakness S. runner-up Itsmyluckyday (Lawyer Ron). 

“It’s all about picking up on certain things and I’m not afraid to ask questions,” said Servis. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet a number of different trainers and having my uncles Jason and Eddie and being able to pick their brains–taking different things from different trainers–things that I like and I see that work, or things that I don’t like.” 

Added Servis, “Even though I am just starting out and even if I were training for years, there is still something you can learn all the time and there are new ways you can do things. It’s just about trying to get the best out of the horses that you have, whether it’s a $5,000 claiming horse or a stakes horse.” 

“Since I’ve been training, I’ve been calling a lot of owners and trying to pick up more clients,” he continued. “You need to prove yourself before people give you opportunities, so that’s why I’m really thankful for Mr. Cassella and the people who gave me opportunities without too much of a body of work.” 

“The first couple horses I had were some cheaper horses, but I did pretty well with them,” said Servis. “I got some horses claimed, started getting more opportunities and owners gave me bigger opportunities. Like Mr. Casella with Insane Monk, sending me a baby, a PA-bred. They gave me opportunities to show what I can do.” 

That brings us to the cleverly named Insane Monk (Ecclesiastic–Lunacy {Brz}, by Minstrel Glory). The 10-1 shot is the latest training success for Servis, who wasn’t surprised with how well the bay colt performed (video). 

“We knew early he had talent and we were very happy with how he was doing,” remarked Servis. “He had some really good works out of the gate with some horses that were working really nice. They gave us the odds they gave us, which I thought were crazy, but I wasn’t complaining. We ended up paying a big price.” 

Added Servis, “It was a great ride by the jockey [Roberto Rosado]. Insane Monk didn’t get a great start, but [Rosado] put him where he needed to be and the horse is a fighter. He dug in and showed what he had.” 
Plans for Insane Monk are up in the air, but Servis is mulling several options. 

“We’ll see how he came out of the race,” Servis commented. “He could be running in an allowance at Parx or something like that, but obviously you don’t want to ship unless you need to. I’d rather keep him here, especially being a PA-bred. He’ll tell me the way he comes out of the race and the way he is in the next week.” 

Reflecting on how well his runners have performed recently, Servis is grateful for what he has and is optimistic about the future. 

“I have a good group of horses right now, they are all running well in the spots that they can compete in and that’s all I can ask for,” said an upbeat Servis. “I’ve been really thankful to be in the family that I am and have so much support and help from my wife, Stacey, and family. It’s been a pleasure for me to see things paying off for the horses. It’s a reflection on all the people that have supported me and helped me along the way and it’s a reflection on the people that are still with me now–my grooms down to the hotwalkers and the riders–and even the horses that are doing the work now. It’s an exciting time. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get more opportunities and more horses to just keep improving and getting better as a trainer.”