There is no shortage of 3-year-olds preparing to compete over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf July 19 in the $225,000 Quick Call Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga Race Course, which should set up for an exciting display of speed.
Twelve horses can start, with M Racing Group's El Magnate drawing into the field from the also-eligible list, after Cy Fair, the 9-5 morning-line favorite and 2025 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) winner, scratched to race in the July 18 Coronation Cup Stakes (G3T), where she defeated four sophomore fillies over yielding turf.
The George Weaver-trained Johnny's Red Storm, who sits at 5-1 from post 10, is now the morning-line choice. John Cronin Jr. and RAP Racing's Twirling Candy colt was perfect at 2, sweeping a Saratoga maiden by 4 lengths and the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint Stakes by 2 lengths in late August.
The colt then went to the sidelines, returning to the work tab June 12 and entering Saturday's contest off five recorded breezes, including a :58 3/5 bullet work July 12 on the Saratoga turf.
He's not the only promising 2025 2-year-old returning for his first start of the year. Dale Romans and Steve Berg's Bobrovsky also comes off the bench after being unraced since a fourth, beaten just three-quarters of a length with some trouble, in Keeneland's Indian Summer Stakes in October. He traveled to Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup, but failed to draw in off the also-eligible list.
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Like Johnny's Red Storm, he sports a win over the surface which came in last summer's Skidmore Stakes. Co-owner Romans trains the Daredevil colt, and also enters longshot Rockies Balboa for his turf debut.
Also making his turf debut is D. J. Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Kenneth Freirich's Ewing. The speedy son of Knicks Go impressed the Saratoga crowd last year with a 12-length maiden victory and a 1-length score against Obliteration in the Saratoga Special Stakes (G2). He makes his first start after a freshening since running a disappointing sixth in Oaklawn Park's Ozark Stakes in February.
West Point also has the field's third graded winner in Intricate Spirit, who it co-owns with Madaket Stables and Kenneth and Gail Beitz. The son of Complexity corrected a three-race losing streak that followed his Futurity Stakes (G3T) triumph last October with a sharp gate-to-wire performance in the Paradise Creek Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack May 23.
Stakes winners Throckmorton, who shifts from trainer Jose D'Angelo to Chad Summers, and Unwritten Rule also are among the field.
Saratoga Race Course, Sunday, July 19, 2026, Race 9Entries: Quick Call S. Presented by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Ewing (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 124 Mark E. Casse 6/1 2 2Learntodiscover (GB) Tyler Gaffalione 120 Brendan P. Walsh 20/1 3 3Throckmorton (KY) Luis Saez 124 Chad Summers 10/1 4 4Intricate Spirit (KY) Manuel Franco 124 Miguel Clement 12/1 5 5Monster (FL) Edgard J. Zayas 122 Jose Francisco D'Angelo 20/1 6 6Unwritten Rule (KY) Jose Lezcano 124 Thomas F. Proctor 12/1 7 7Longshoreman (KY) Jaime Rodriguez 120 Wesley A. Ward 12/1 8 8Cy Fair (KY) John R. Velazquez 119 George Weaver 9/5 9 9Stradale (KY) Ricardo Santana, Jr. 122 Steven M. Asmussen 12/1 10 10Johnny's Red Storm (KY) Flavien Prat 124 George Weaver 5/1 11 11Rockies Balboa (FL) Dylan Davis 122 Dale L. Romans 30/1 12 12Bobrovsky (KY) Junior Alvarado 124 Dale L. Romans 10/1 13 13El Magnate (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Mark E. Casse 8/1 14 14Oscar's Hope (KY) Rider TBA 124 Kinnon LaRose 4/1
