Larry Melancon was in Al Stall’s ear a lot the last month.
Stall knows enough that when a guy like Melancon, whose career took him from riding races at Louisiana bush tracks as a 9-year-old to one of the all-time leading jockeys at Churchill Downs, tells you something it frequently pays to listen. He told Stall “we’re ready, we’re ready,” every time he got off Central Banker in the morning for about the last month.
The trick was finding a race to see if Melancon was right. Nothing really fit the last few weeks of the Churchill Downs meeting. Nothing fit the first weekend at Saratoga either.
Thursday’s Quick Call going 5 ½ furlongs on the turf proved a close enough fit and Melancon was spot on with his assessment of Central Banker, who ran away from his seven rivals in the stretch to win the $100,000 overnight stakes by 3 3/4 lengths from fellow Kentucky shipper No Distinction. European import The Brothers War was third. Joel Rosario rode the winner, who covered 5 ½ furlongs in 1:02.56 after rating just off the early pace of Stage Street and No Distinction.
“Larry said that a long time ago, so when he says that it just gives you a lot of confidence,” Stall said walking to the paddock to saddle Bonnie Rose in the ninth race. “He won like 3,500 races, works for us and gets on him every day.”
Melancon started with Stall back in May 2012, around the time he started toying with the idea of hanging up his tack. He pulled that trigger in mid-August last year, officially retiring with 2,857 victories.
Working for Stall and getting on quality horses, like Central Banker, give Melancon the itch. He thinks a little about coming back. Lured by the big horses, the big days. He gets the itch when he breezes colts like Central Banker, who won his turf debut last year at Saratoga in his second start then finished in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile.
Melancon breezed him on the Oklahoma turf course the morning of opening day. Stall put a couple young horses inside of Central Banker, who won sprinting on the dirt last year, too, and he worked like a cagey veteran. A lot like Melancon.
“He moves good and has a great attitude,” Melancon said from the end of the horse path after leading Bonnie Rose to the track. “He’s a racehorse. After I worked him I could tell he was still feeling good, so no matter where he ran he was going to try. I worked him the time before, too, [a half-mile on the main track July 13]. He just stayed back. You can do whatever you want with him.”
Stall’s got a lot of options with Central Banker, too, now that the colt owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables Inc. and William Lawrence is back. He raced five times at 2, winning twice and only finishing off the board in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot. That race, worth $1 million, certainly looks a lot better on form now than it did late last year with eventual Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents the winner and the classic-placed Mylute third.
Stall stopped on Central Banker after that mid-November race and thought about a return maybe late in the Fair Grounds meet.
“We wanted to give him a little freshening because he had five starts his 2-year-old year and we brought him back training and he popped a splint,” Stall said. “We had to stop and fix it. Nothing major, just a little thing.
“The best thing was he was ready to run about a month ago while we were at Churchill, but there just wasn’t the right race at the right time. He was really ready to run today because we had an extra month to sweep him up.”
Stall settled on the Quick Call, named for the popular Quack gelding who won nine races at Saratoga in the late 1980s and early 1990s, instead of Sunday’s Amsterdam Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs on the dirt against 3-year-olds and the James Marvin going 7 on dirt against older horses opening day. The Quick Call “kind of fell into our lap,” Stall said.
The race fell into Randy Morse’s lap a bit, too, as he opted for the Quick Call instead of the Amsterdam with No Distinction. The With Distinction colt took the lead briefly in the stretch but saw his three-race win streak end when he couldn’t withstand the winner’s rally in midstretch.
“I was pressured on the inside, then I got a little breather for him,” said jockey Robby Albarado. “He ran huge for the first time on grass.”
