Saratoga: Final Score leads whole way in With Anticipation
Final Score made every pole a winning one en route to a 4 1/2-length score Thursday in the Grade 3, $175,000 With Anticipation Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile inner-turf route for 2-year-olds at Saratoga.
Owned by Repole Stable and trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the dark bay colt made it a sweep of this week’s juvenile turf stakes routes at the Spa for Pletcher, owner Mike Repole and sire Not This Time. They also won when Time to Dream took Wednesday’s listed P.G. Johnson for fillies over the same course and distance.
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“We had a few winners at Aqueduct, so it seemed like the ones we were running were running pretty well, but we knew the pool of talent when you get here is a lot different,” Pletcher said following his 13th 2-year-old win at this meet. “You’re training them against their barn mates, and sometimes you come over here, and they’re not as good as you thought they were, and sometimes like this year, it seems to have worked out pretty well.”
Pletcher also praised Not This Time, who also produced Up to the Mark, his stable’s 2023 champion turf male.
“He’s a phenomenal stallion. He does a little bit of everything,” Pletcher said. “We were fortunate to have success with Up to the Mark early on, and we became fans of him early on and fortunate to have ones like these two we ran yesterday and today.”
Final Score entered from a second-out graduation over the course and distance Aug. 10. That was when he also utilized pace-setting tactics with a mild tempo under Irad Ortiz Jr. to score by 1 3/4 lengths over re-opposing Heeere’s Johnny.
“We were coming off a race where we went pretty slow on the front end, so we didn’t want to send him,” Pletcher said. “But if it was there for the taking, that was plan A.”
With Kendrick Carmouche in the irons Thursday, Final Score was sharp from the inside post and preserved his rail position to mark splits of 24.53 and 48.63 seconds over the firm turf with post-time favorite Capital Partner tracking ahead of Strategic Risk to his outside.
“I just rode him away from there,” Carmouche said. “It looked like breaking from the 1 hole, that’s where we should’ve been. I’m glad he broke sharp and put me in a good position. After that the horse did the rest. I just had to point him to the winner’s circle. That’s all I had to do.”
Final Score maintained his lead heading into the turn. Flavien Prat shook his reins aboard Capital Partner, and Heeere’s Johnny got going on the inside through three-quarters of a mile in 1:12.27. There were few tense moments for Final Score through the final eighth as he quickly dismissed the challenge from Capital Partner and drew off to post the easy victory with a final time of 1:41.75.
Heeere’s Johnny again completed the exacta with another 1 1/4 lengths back to Capital Partner in third, a neck ahead of Dr. Agne. Gloves Off and Strategic Risk completed the finish in that order. Caroline St. Beat and One More Freud were scratched.
Pletcher said options for a potential next start include the Pilgrim (G2) on Oct. 3 at Belmont at the Big A or the Bourbon (G2) on Oct. 5 at Keeneland. Both offer win-and-you’re-in berths to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
“I’ll have to think about that a little bit and see,” Pletcher said. “There’s obvious possibilities at either Aqueduct or Keeneland. We’ll play it by ear.”
Bred in Kentucky by BG Stable, Final Score was a $600,000 purchase at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale. He is out of winning Bernardini mare Precious Dixie, a half-sister to Grade 1-placed Lady Kate, dual graded stakes-placed Prince of Arabia and Grade 3-placed Princess Theorem. He banked $96,250 in victory while returning $20.60 on a $2 win ticket.