Blame the Booze Stretches Out in With Anticipation

Mark Breen's Blame the Booze will stretch out in distance and switch surfaces in the $100,000 With Anticipation Stakes (G3T), a 1 1/16-mile Mellon turf test for juveniles Sept. 2 at Saratoga Race Course.

The With Anticipation has drawn a well-matched field of six, including the Wesley Ward-trained Blame the Booze, who turned back stablemate King of Miami when graduating on debut in a six-furlong off-the-turf sprint July 10 at Belmont Park.

"This guy is an overachiever," said Ward. "I had the favorite in that maiden race and he probably worked with him 20 times at Keeneland and outworked him, but as soon we put them in the race, this horse rose to the occasion. The light bulb went on after that and he's really been working nice."

Blame the Booze has breezed six times at Saratoga this summer—with the last four efforts on the Oklahoma training turf—including a bullet half-mile Aug. 28 in :48.88.

"He's doing pretty good. He had a nice breeze today," Ward said Friday. "He worked in company with Epicurean, an unraced 2-year-old filly, and he did it well."

A gelded son of Blame , out of the Discreet Cat mare Discreet Star, Ward said Blame the Booze shouldn't stumble over the added distance.

"He's done everything right training on the grass and usually slop transcends to grass," said Ward. "I'm excited about this guy and distance shouldn't be a problem with his breeding."

Luis Saez has the call from the inside post.

A talented field of lightly-raced prospects for the With Anticipation includes first-out maiden winners American Monarch and Nathan Detroit.

American Monarch, a Mike Rutherford homebred son of American Pharoah , won his debut Aug. 8 over 1 1/16-miles on the Saratoga turf.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, American Monarch will be reunited with jockey Junior Alvarado from post 2.

Joseph Allen's homebred Nathan Detroit, a son of Union Rags , turned in a game three-quarter length score traveling one mile over the Ellis Park turf July 25.

Trained by Reeve McGaughey, son of Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, Nathan Detroit will exit post 6 under Jose Lezcano.

Rounding out the field are Zippy Baby, Winfromwithin, and Fire At Will.

Entries: With Anticipation S. (G3T)

Saratoga Race Course, Wednesday, September 02, 2020, Race 9

• Grade IIIT
• 1 1/16m
• Turf
• $100,000
• 2 yo
• 5:06 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Blame the Booze (KY)	Luis Saez	120	Wesley A. Ward	9/2
2	2American Monarch (KY)	Junior Alvarado	122	William I. Mott	7/5
3	3Zippy Baby (KY)	Joel Rosario	122	Dermot Magner	6/1
4	4Winfromwithin (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	118	Todd A. Pletcher	4/1
5	5Fire At Will (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	118	Michael J. Maker	7/2
6	6Nathan Detroit (KY)	Jose Lezcano	122	J. Reeve McGaughey	8/1