With Anticipation a battle of the unbeatens

Trainers Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown and Graham Motion have combined to win

five of the past six editions of the $200,000

With

Anticipation, and all three will be represented in Thursday's Grade 2, 1

1/16-mile turf heat for juveniles at

Saratoga.

Pletcher, who has won the race three times including the 2013 edition with

Bashart, has Designed for War entered for the grass and Blame Jim for the main

track. Both were wire-to-wire debut winners, with Designed for War prevailing by

1 3/4 lengths over the course and distance August 9. The 3-2 favorite that day,

Designed for War set a slow pace and had plenty of left to withstand his

challengers.

"He had a bit of a pace advantage that day and he was able to kind of get an

easy lead, and was good enough to take advantage of it," Pletcher said. "It was

just a result of the way the race unfolded, but we were pretty happy with the

way he did it.

"He's a colt that showed promise all summer. We felt like, typical of some of

the War Fronts that we've had, when we put him on the grass he showed some

improvement. We thought he ran well."

Blame Jim, the probable favorite in the event the With Anticipation is

switched to the main track, zipped home by three lengths over next-out winner

Bold Conquest July 19 as an odds-on favorite going 5 1/2 furlongs.

Brown and Motion will also saddle first-out winners in the With Anticipation.

The Brown-trained Startup Nation steps up in class after posting a 9-1 upset

against New York-bred maidens August 7. The Temple City colt was down 10 lengths

after a half-mile and made up seven lengths in the final quarter-mile to win

going away by two lengths.

"He ran terrific in his first start," Brown said. "He came out of the race

well and he's trained well since. We're looking forward to trying him in a

stakes race. We've always liked the horse. He was training well leading up to

his debut and we expected him to run well. He's a beautiful horse. He's got good

mechanics and a great attitude. He's what you're looking for in a two-year-old."

Motion will be represented by Strong Coffee, who rallied from slightly off a

modest pace to win his debut by three lengths over next-out winner Face the

Music on August 2. Strong Coffee is a half-brother to Grade 3 turf winners Gulch

Approval and Rusty Slipper, and is closely related to last weekend's Travers

runner-up Wicked Strong.

"Certainly, he surprised me that he could win like that first time out,"

Motion said. "I thought he would run well; I didn't necessarily think he had to

win, and certainly didn't expect him to win like that.

"I actually brought him up here with the idea of running him on the dirt," he

said. "I didn't think he handled the dirt up here that well when I worked him,

so I took him over on the grass and he worked like a different horse. I have his

half-sister, so it wasn't a surprise.

"The thing about this horse that's so neat is he just has this really

remarkable attitude. He's just a very kind of cool, laid-back horse and takes

everything very well, so that helps him."

Motion will also saddle Hot Tin Roof, who won at first asking over Presque

Isle Downs' Tapeta surface going six furlongs on July 30.

Returning to the grass is International Star, who posted a 5 1/2-length debut

win over Belmont's inner turf on June 21. The following month, the Mike

Maker-trained colt finished second, beaten seven lengths, in the $122,000

Rockville Centre for New York-breds on dirt at Belmont.

The With Anticipation field is rounded out by Creaky Cricket, who's

floundered in two main-track stakes since an 11 1/2-length debut win at

Arlington on Polytrack; Nutty Futty, a 5 3/4-length maiden winner over the

Gulfstream turf in his third start; and Kutuzov, a five-furlong maiden winner on

the Gulfstream sod in his seventh start.

The $75,000

Mrs. Walter

M. Jeffords, a 2 3/8-mile hurdle for fillies and mares, features a rematch

of the top four finishers from the $75,000 Mrs. Ogden Phipps on August 7 -- Cat

Feathers, Kisser N Run, Brilliant Match, and Opera Heroine. Also in with a

chance is Bittersweetheart, a stakes winner last out at Percy Warner Park in

Nashville.

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