By Dick Jerardi
Horse racing is nothing if not a gamble. And not just for bettors. Owners gamble when they breed, sell, buy and claim horses. There is no formula.
Consider the now 4-year-old filly Alani who just won her first stakes in her 14th start, the $100,000 Love Sign at Colonial Downs on Saturday. She was purchased by trainer John Servis for $57,000 at the May 2023 Timonium sale for 2-year-olds. She raced twice as a 2-year-old and five times as a 3-year-old for Servis and owner Carguys Racing, LLC, running second four times before breaking her maiden on Nov. 16, 2024.
Servis put the filly in an optional claimer at Parx on Dec. 18, 2024. She was eligible to be claimed for $75,000. Trainer Michael Moore decided to claim her for his Hardesty Stables and owner Mike Day. Just as it had been a gamble for Servis and his owner to buy her, it was a gamble for Moore and Day to claim her.
Alani earned $79,195 while Servis trained her. The owner also got $75,000 for the claim. So that’s $154,195 in the year and half less, of course the purchase price (and training fees, vet bills, etc). So let’s call it a $97,000 profit before those expenses.
Moore and Day were immediately behind $75,000 and playing catch up when 2025 began. In her seven races this year, Alani has four wins, two seconds and a fourth for earnings of $201,800. Subtract the $75,000 claiming price and they are ahead $126,800 less those other fees.
All told, the filly has now earned $280,995 for her two different connections – a good buy for Servis, a good claim for Moore.
“What I liked about her was I thought she showed good promise as a 3-year-old,” Moore said. “You’re hoping that she’s going to progress as a 4-year-old which she has.”
“We beat her with a filly that I have Pure Lure who has not gotten better this year. And she was a real nice horse last year when she beat Alani so that made me kind of pay attention to Alani. I went over the day they ran her (for $75,000) and she looked real good.”
Moore was not really thinking about stakes when he claimed Alani. He was thinking even if she won the day he claimed her (she finished third), he could run her back in the same condition (non winners of two races) because she was in to be claimed.
It obviously has turned out even better than he hoped, but there was never any guarantee of that. She ran through some conditions at Parx, won a third optional claimer at Laurel before running a never-in-it fourth in the Rehoboth Stakes at Delaware Park (her only poor dirt performance in 13 dirt stats) and then a good second in the Alma North Stakes at Laurel.
“She was dull that day (at Delaware),” Moore said. “I don’t really know what it was.”
The good news is that she has always shown up in every other race for Servis and Moore.
Alani is a daughter of Competitive Edge who began his career with four straight wins by a combined 28 3/4 lengths for trainer Todd Pletcher. Those wins included the Hopeful Stakes and Pat Day Mile. Competitive Edge actually set the pace in the 2015 Haskell before fading to fourth behind Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
Alani is now the 11th Moore-trained horse to win more than $200,000. Servis, in his legendary career that is closing on 2,100 winners, has had four horses earn more than $1 million and 10 more earn at least $500,000. Servis’s greatest trainee, Smarty Jones, the best ever from Pennsylvania and one of the very best to race in the 21st Century, will be honored Friday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., when he is inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.
In Saturday’s stakes win, Alani, under jockey Andy Hernandez, immediately took the lead, but was under pressure the whole way. It would have been concerning if you did not know her.
“What’s interesting about her is she finishes real good,” Moore said. “She looks like she’s not getting anything. One thing I’ve learned about her if she’s in contention at the quarter pole, she finishes well.”
So, even though Alani was dueling, Moore had faith that she would finish. And she did, running away from the field to win by 1 3/4 lengths.
Even with the first stakes win, Moore is under no illusions. Alani got an 80 Beyer figure, the second best of her career. She is solid, but nowhere near a star.
“That was a pretty weak stake,’’ Moore said. “I got lucky. It wasn’t a great field, but I’m not going to argue with it.”
In horse racing, you never argue with a profit. And so far, Alani, with two owners, has shown a profit for both.
