Strong rally propels Listing to Quick Call victory
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – California invaders swept both stakes on Thursday’s opening day program at Saratoga after Listing followed Comical’s narrow victory in the Grade 3 Schuylerville with a popular half-length triumph of his own in the $100,000 Quick Call decided over a yielding turf course under intermittent showers. The win was the third on the day for jockey Joel Rosario.
Listing shipped to New York from his Santa Anita base last week and got in one work over the main track at Belmont Park before continuing on to Saratoga for the Grade 3 Quick Call. The 3-year-old son of Square Eddie came into the 5 1/2-furlong Quick Call having won three of eight previous starts including a pair of turf stakes at Santa Anita earlier this season.
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Listing was jostled between horses leaving the gate and had only Elektronic beat in the run down the backstretch and into the turn. Rosario angled Listing out looking for clearance into the stretch, finally found a seam between horses nearing the three-sixteenths pole, rushed to command a sixteenth from home before withstanding a final surge from Elektronic, who finished full of run on the extreme outside. Neverland Rock was a neck farther back in third after having gained a short advantage nearing the furlong marker.
Sombeyay, Abyssinian, Fully Loaded, and Call Paul rounded out the order of finish.
Ben Cecil, who was out of the country on Thursday, trains Listing, whose four previous turf starts had all come over firm ground. The Reddam Racing homebred completed the distance in 1:03.94 and paid $4.80 as the favorite in a scratch-reduced field of seven 3-year-olds.
“He has speed, he broke sharp, then I just tried to hold him together and move at the right time,” said Rosario. “And he did. I got through between horses and he kicked on. The ground was soft, but he seemed to be handling it just fine. I rode him once before on the dirt, in California, he didn’t get beat too far. He went to the grass right after and he won easy. He was back on the grass again today and gave another good performance.”
