BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Florida-breds Rockies Balboa and Monster are part of an overflow field of turf sprinters entered for Sunday’s $225,000 Quick Call Stakes presented by Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a Grade 3 test for 3-year-olds at five-and-a-half furlongs at Saratoga Race Course.

An out-of-state victory at this level by either would earn a $5,000 Export Incentive for their respective breeders paid by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.

Both will be making their second career starts at The Spa as the Jose D’Angelo-trained Monster was second in last year’s $139,000 Skidmore at the same distance on the Mellon turf while trainer Dale Romans sent Rockies Balboa to a fifth-place finish in a six-furlong maiden special weight there in his first career start in September of last year.

Monster enters off a third-place finish last out in a Churchill Downs allowance on June 7, a race in which he led until the final sixteenth and just missed second by a nose.

This will be the fourth different track in five starts this year for Monster. In two races at Gulfstream Park, he was fifth in the $100,000 Texas Glitter on turf in March and second in the $83,000 Roar on synthetic on May 17. Between those two, he was fifth in the $287,000 Palisades (Listed) going five-and-a-half furlongs on the Keeneland turf in April.

Monster has won two with two seconds and two thirds in 10 starts with earnings of $171,591. He is by Leinster out of Dienda, by Kantharos and was bred in Florida by Dr. Ross Russell and Deeann Smith Cavanaugh. Arindel purchased him for $25,000 out of the 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Winter Mixed Sale where he was consigned by Bobby Jones Equine.

 

Monster is 20-1 in the program and will be taken from post five by jockey Edgard Zayas.

Rockies Balboa won a first condition, $125,000 optional claiming over a sloppy six-and-a-half furlongs at Churchill Downs in his last out on June 25 after finishing fifth under the same conditions going six furlongs on a fast track there on May 29.

He won two straight at Gulfstream Park over the winter including a nearly six-length victory in a maiden $50,000 optional claiming in December and a five-length domination of a state-bred allowance going seven furlongs in January. He was off the board in the Grade 2 Coolmore Fountain of Youth on February 29 before finishing second in two state bred stakes, the $98,000 OBS Sophomore at Tampa Bay Downs in March and the $100,000 FHBPA Sophomore Sprint at Gulfstream in April. 

Rockies Balboa has three wins and three seconds in 10 starts while earning $177,266 for Charles Monfort, America’s Pastime Stables, Jeffrey Bloom’s Bloom Racing Stable and Edwin S. Barker. Bloom as an agent for Monfort and Brian Spagnola bought him for $150,000 out of the Randy Miles consignment at the 2025 OBS Spring Sale.

He is by Girvin out of Toni Ann’s Miracle, by Hear No Evil and was bred in Florida by Tonya Hunt.

Dylan Davis is named to ride Rockies Balboa from post 11 and they are 30-1 in the program.

Others set for the Quick Call are Ewing with jockey Jose Ortiz, Tyler Gaffalione has the call on Learntodiscover (GB), Throckmorton will have Luis Saez in the saddle, Unwritten Rule will carry Jose Lezcano, Jaime Rodriguez has the assignment on Longshoreman, morning line favorite Cy Fair will have John Velazquez in the irons, Flavien Prat rides Johnny’s Red Storm and Junior Alvarado will guide Bobrovsky from the outside post 12. El Magnate is on the also eligible list and Oscar’s Hope is entered under main track only conditions.

Return to the July 18 issue of Wire to Wire