Final Score wins the With Anticipation in frontrunning fashion (Chelsea Durand)
Mary Eddy/NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Repole Stable’s Final Score made every pole a winning one en route to a 4 1/2-length score in Thursday’s Grade 3, $175,000 With Anticipation, a 1 1/16-mile inner turf route for juveniles, at Saratoga Race Course.
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 and Repole, and for sire Not This Time after Time to Dream took Wednesday’s Listed P.G. Johnson presented by Snap-On for fillies over the same course and distance.
“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 this meet at the Spa. “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.
“He’s a phenomenal stallion. He does a little bit of everything,” he added of Not This Time, who also produced the Pletcher-trained Up to the Mark, who was named 2023 Champion Turf Male. “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 course and distance on August 10, where he also utilized pacesetting tactics with a mild tempo under Irad Ortiz, Jr. to score by 1 3/4 lengths over the reopposing 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, but if it was there for the taking that was ‘Plan A,’” Pletcher said.
With Kendrick Carmouche in the irons on Thursday, the dark bay colt was sharp from the inside post and preserved his rail position to mark splits of 24.53 seconds and 48.63 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 one 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 while Flavien Prat shook his reins aboard Capital Partner and Heeere’s Johnny got going on the inside through three-quarters 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 in 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 order of finish. Caroline St. Beat and One More Freud were scratched.
Pletcher said options for a potential next start includes the Grade 2 Pilgrim on October 3 at Belmont at the Big A or the Grade 2 Bourbon on October 5 at Keeneland, with both offering a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
“I’ll have to think about that a little bit and see,” Pletcher concluded. “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 and is out of the 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.
Live racing resumes Friday at Saratoga with a 12-race card, featuring the Listed Bernard Baruch in Race 3 and the Listed $150,000 Perfect Sting in Race 11. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.
