With Anticipation wires Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Under Jon Court, With Anticipation established a slow pace and led all the way to win the $109,900 Louisville Handicap by six lengths Saturday at Churchill Downs. He returned $6.60 as second choice in a field of six in the 1 3/8-mile turf race.

Profit Option, who trailed most of the way, rallied to be second, a half-length before Gritty Sandie. Air Rocket was fourth, while Williams News, the 3-2 favorite, finished fifth. Three Wonders finished last.

Hesiode was an early scratch.

With Anticipation's owner, George Strawbridge Jr., and trainer, Jonathan Sheppard, have a long legacy of success with grass horses. But for most of his career, With Anticipation, a 6-year-old Relaunch gelding, has raced on dirt, earning more than $300,000 on that surface.

But when With Anticipation fit the restrictive allowance conditions of a grass race at Keeneland in April, Strawbridge and Sheppard agreed to give him a chance on turf. He won by nine lengths and then annihilated a solid field of turf marathoners Saturday.

With Anticipation is out of the mare Fran's Valentine, who finished first in the inaugural Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in 1984 but was disqualified for interference. With Anticipation is a minor stakes winner on dirt, but Sheppard, based on the East Coast, said the Louisville victory meant "we're going to give him every chance to be a good horse on grass."

With Anticipation set fractions of 26.07 seconds, 50.83, and 1:16.27 before finishing in 2:04.61 over a firm turf course. "That kind of pace is no good for my horse," said Tom Amoss, trainer of Williams News.