Opry wins maiden in With Anticipation Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When the gates opened and Opry walked out several lengths behind the field at the start of Wednesday’s Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes, trainer Todd Pletcher said he had only one thought:

“Not again!”

But Opry was able to overcome the potentially disastrous beginning to rally from last to an extremely impressive 1 1/2-length victory over even-money favorite Somelikeithotbrown in the $150,000 With Anticipation for 2-year-olds on the turf.

“It’s kind of been one of those meets when we haven’t been getting off to too many good starts,” said Pletcher.

Opry, a son of Declaration of War, had made one previous start on Aug. 11, a race originally scheduled for the turf that was ultimately switched to a main track rated good due to rain. Opry broke slow that day as well, then rallied belatedly to finish third, beaten just a length, going seven furlongs.

With Javier Castellano aboard in the With Anticipation, Opry was a bit reluctant to enter the starting gate then lunged and broke outward after the doors sprung open at the start. Opry was reserved at the rear of the field for the first seven furlongs, eased out to the middle of the strip while commencing his rally at the top of the stretch, then finished full of run to easily wear down Somelikeithotbrown and win going away.

Somelikeithotbrown was a runaway winner of his turf debut in a race decided at the wrong distance – 1 1/8 miles rather than 1 1/16 miles as originally scheduled – here three weeks earlier. The favorite settled in easy striking distance off the early pace set by Joyful Heart, eventually wore down the tiring leader between calls near midstretch, but proved no match for the winner’s devastating late surge. Joyful Heart finished a tiring third following by Swamp Rat, Seanow, and Gunslinger in a race which scratched down from an original field of 12 juveniles that included two main-track-only entrants.

Opry, owned by the partnership of Cheyenne Stables and Gaillardia Racing LLC, completed the distance on a firm track in 1:42.00 and paid $9.80.

“It was interesting talking to Javier [after the race] because when I was watching the race I wasn’t sure how much horse he had down the backstretch,” said Pletcher. “But Javier said he had a lot of horse and he was traveling well. Once he got in the lane, I thought that was a super impressive run."

Pletcher said Opry had trained well enough on the dirt that he wasn’t concerned about leaving him in to run when the race came off the turf prior to his first start.

“I thought he might win an off-the-turf type race, but I thought a couple of his turf breezes were pretty impressive and that he was a little better on the grass,” said Pletcher. “And I decided that if this horse came back and worked okay, I’d bring him back and run him in the With Anticipation.”

Opry gave Pletcher his second With Anticipation win with a maiden. He also accomplished the feat here with Azar in 2015.