Call Paul hits the road again for Steel Valley Sprint

Call Paul, who has won three stakes this year while racing at seven different tracks, headlines the $250,000 Steel Valley Sprint, one of Ohio’s biggest races, on Monday evening at Mahoning Valley.

The Steel Valley Sprint, which drew a field of 12 3-year-olds, shares the card with the $75,000 Mahoning Distaff, for which 10 fillies and mares are entered. First post for the nine-race card at the Austintown, Ohio, track is 12:45 p.m. Eastern.

Call Paul, a 3-year-old Pennsylvania-bred colt by leading Maryland sire Friesan Fire, is trained by Jason Servis for Michael Dubb, David Simon, and Bethlehem Stables. He won the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and the statebred Pennsylvania Nursery as a juvenile, and finished third in both the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont and Grade 2 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct that year. Call Paul had a productive first half of this season, winning the Grade 3 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream and the Danzig Stakes at Penn National back against Pennsylvania-breds, and finishing third in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct and second in the Gold Fever Stakes at Belmont. However, he faltered in the summer at Saratoga, finishing seventh in the Grade 3 Quick Call Stakes on the turf and then sixth in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens. Call Paul got some class relief and got back in the win column on the Mid-Atlantic circuit, winning the New Castle Stakes for Delaware-certified runners at Delaware Park and then finishing second, beaten less than a length, in the Maryland Million Sprint at Laurel.

Irad Ortiz, who was Call Paul’s regular rider as a juvenile and was aboard him for the Swale victory, gets back in the irons Monday on the colt, who drew post 2. He is likely to stalk the pace set by Ohio-bred Dare Day, who drew post 4 with regular rider Luis Rivera aboard.

Dare Day, who is trained by Jeff Radosevich for Ron Paolucci, won his first two starts by a combined 16 lengths. He then finished fifth in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby, won by classic-placed Owendale with subsequent Grade 1 winner Math Wizard in second. Dare Day bounced back with an allowance victory, then finished second, beaten three-quarters of a length by reigning Ohio-bred horse of the year Altissimo, in the Best of Ohio Sprint going this same six-furlong distance at Mahoning Valley. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 94, which places him in range of Call Paul, whose top figure this year was a 97 in the New Castle.

Manny Wah finished third in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds in January behind eventual Preakness Stakes winner War of Will and eventual Grade 1 winner Hog Creek Hustle. Manny Wah comes off an optional-claiming victory sprinting at Churchill Downs.

Dugout, who won two stakes against New York-breds last year, finished second in the Decathlon at Monmouth in September and comes off a victory in an optional claimer at Hawthorne. Big Drink of Water, who won three stakes last year as a juvenile, has finished third and second in stakes this season at Woodbine and ran second in an optional claimer there Oct. 27. The field also includes Preamble, who won the first three starts of his career in Kentucky before finishing ninth in the Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes in May at Pimlico, his most recent outing.

◗ Earlier on the card, the consistent Vertrazzo, who has never missed the board in her 13-start career, looks for her first stakes win in the Mahoning Distaff, a six-furlong sprint. Vertrazzo, who hinted at her ability when she was third in two stakes as a juvenile in 2017 at Laurel Park, won back-to-back allowance races this year at Thistledown before finishing second in the West Virginia Secretary of State Stakes on Aug. 3 at Mountaineer. This is her first start since, although she has been working steadily at Mahoning Valley. Florent Geroux will be in to take the mount for trainer Bill Cowans.

Ever Wonder comes into the Mahoning Distaff off an optional-claiming win at Indiana Grand.