Ward pumped up for Golden Pal's Quick Call comeback race

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Wesley Ward could hardly contain his enthusiasm when asked to talk about Golden Pal and the prospect of the 2020 Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner finally launching his 3-year-old campaign on opening day at Saratoga in the $120,000 Quick Call.

“I am so excited about this guy and about this race,” Ward said. “The work for this race at Churchill Downs when he went in 59 might be one of the best I’ve ever had a horse breeze. He did it in a gallop, pricking his ears. There’s no telling how fast he might have gone if Julio [Garcia] had dropped the reins a little bit and tapped him on the shoulder. He would have just exploded.”

Golden Pal won two of his four starts at 2, including the Juvenile Turf Sprint in wire-to-wire fashion going 5 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland – the same distance at which the Grade 3 Quick Call will be decided. His lone loss last season on turf came at Royal Ascot when he was defeated a neck by The Lir Jet in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes.

About the only thing that can prevent Golden Pal from winning Thursday’s Quick Call is Mother Nature. Nearly two inches of rain fell over the local area Sunday and Monday with more in the forecast the following two days.

“If the race comes off the grass, he won’t run. If it stays on and the ground is soft, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Ward said. “He loves it like that. He ran over boggy, boggy ground at Ascot, and the only reason he lost that day was because of jockey error.”

Ward said he purposely waited until this point of the season before finally putting Golden Pal back in action.

“Most of the more important turf sprints don’t start until this time of year, so I planned to have him ready to be at his best from now through the fall and the Breeders’ Cup.”

Irad Ortiz Jr., perfect in two starts aboard Golden Pal, will be aboard once again.

Nine horses were entered for the Quick Call, but Fire Sword and Mr Sippi will run on the main track only, with the former Ward trainee Fauci expected to scratch after running Sunday at Monmouth Park.

The field will include stakes winners Kentucky Pharoah, Second of July, Omaha City, and Jaxon Traveler. The latter is a multiple stakes winner and Grade 3-placed but a question mark trying grass for the first time in his eighth career start.

Kentucky Pharoah will shorten up in distance following a steady diet of two-turn races that included a victory at a mile in the Dania Beach this winter at Gulfstream Park.

Second of July won the Grade 3 Futurity over the Belmont turf in October but finished well back after an unlucky start taking on older allowance horses in his lone start at 3 for trainer Phil Gleaves.