Our Country can turn tables on Field Pass in With Anticipation

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It has been an atypical Saratoga for trainer George Weaver, who has won just two races from 29 starters through the first 34 days of the meet. Things could change in a positive way Wednesday when Weaver sends out Our Country in the Grade 3, $150,000 With Anticipation Stakes for juvenile colts on turf.

Fourth in his July 13 debut, Our Country came back with a strong performance on Aug. 3, winning a 1 1/16-mile maiden race here by 5 3/4 lengths.

Weaver said Our Country wasn’t fully cranked for his debut, when he finished fourth to Field Pass, who is one of his seven rivals on Wednesday.

Weaver told owners Randy Hill and Mike Gatsas that running Our Country that day “would be the best thing for him, but he really wasn’t cranked up full tilt.”

“He made a run and leveled off late and he had a little bit of trouble,” Weaver said. “He had a nice trip in his maiden win and he seems like a nice colt.”

Our Country was one of three next-out winners from that July 13 race.

Field Pass was second sprinting in his debut on June 21 at Churchill and was one of four next-out winners from that race when he beat Our Country on July 13. Field Pass got a nice inside stalking trip that day. Wednesday, he breaks from the outside post under Luis Saez.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has won six of the 14 runnings of the With Anticipation. Two of those wins came with maidens – Opry in 2018 and Azar in 2015. Eagerly, Pletcher’s entrant this year, is coming off a closing third in his debut on July 27, when he was hung out wide after breaking from post 10.

Four of the last six winners of the With Anticipation were running back on three weeks of rest or less. Trainer Jeremiah Englehart is utilizing that strategy while also switching surfaces with Tuggle, who is coming out of a third-place finish behind Green Light Go in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special.

Tuggle is a son of Point of Entry, so he has turf breeding. Englehart said he has galloped Tuggle on turf, though he hasn’t worked him over it.

“I always wanted to try him on the grass and just thought it would be a decent spot to try him,” said Englehart, who trains Tuggle for Bill Parcells. “He’s doing really well and he had a really good [dirt] work last week.”

Fly Fly Away stretches out off a turf sprint win. Flying Seabee comes off a maiden win at Ellis Park. Jack the Ripper won a maiden race in France. Andesite won a maiden race at Indiana Grand.

The With Anticipation goes as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins the day with a $367,918 carryover in the Empire 6, which begins on race 5.