Trainer Brad Cox was offered a chance to pump the brakes on the hype train following Nash, the talented 2-year-old colt he trains for Godolphin. Perhaps folks were getting ahead of themselves making Nash, a twice-started colt with merely a maiden win atop his résumé, the third shortest individual betting choice last month in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager. Cox demurred. “I hope not,” Cox said. “I like everything about the horse.” The betting public is going to love Nash on Saturday at Fair Grounds when he meets other winners for the first time in the $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes. He’ll be a heavy favorite in the Gun Runner, which caps a 12-race, eight-stakes card with an early noon Central first post. The 1 1/16-mile contest, added to the stakes schedule in 2021, is the first in Fair Grounds’ series of dirt route stakes leading to the $1 million Louisiana Derby. The race offers qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis. Nash is among eight entrants and is listed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite under Florent Geroux. He’ll probably be shorter than that and likely wins the Gun Runner merely by repeating his last performance. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Nash, a son of Medaglia d’Oro, always was meant to be a route horse. He ran a winning race in his six-furlong Keeneland debut but ran into a sizzling performance from a colt named Booth, finishing second. Second time out, going two turns at Churchill, Nash was second to none, cruising on the lead to a 10 1/4-length win while not being asked by Geroux past the eighth pole and galloping out strongly around the far turn, earning a flashy 97 Beyer Speed Figure. “Listen, I want to see it, too, and it’s always a question facing winners, but I love the way he trains,” Cox said. Nash, who did all but his final Gun Runner works at Churchill, breezes with enough verve that Cox sees no need to work the colt in company. “I think it’s a really good spot to step him up. There are good horses in there,” Cox said. Cox has a second entrant, Catching Freedom, with ability. A debut one-turn mile maiden winner, Catching Freedom finished fourth in a first-level two-turn allowance race Nov. 7, encountering compromising traffic at the eighth pole before finishing with spark. “He’s an interesting horse, a hard horse to figure out, a little inconsistent with his works,” Cox said. Trainer Steve Asmussen also entered two, the potentially distance-challenged Risk It and impressive Churchill maiden winner Track Phantom, the likely second choice. Track Phantom turned in good losses racing in a pair of one-turn miles before breaking through in his two-turn debut with a front-running 4 3/4-length victory. “What we saw in his first two-turn race was what we hoped to see: Catch a little breather in the middle and come home nicely,” Asmussen said. Track Phantom has post 8 and is going to the front under Cristian Torres. “Speed in two-turn races has been effective a long time at Fair Grounds,” Asmussen said. Snead began his career with a pair of turf defeats but is 2 for 2 on dirt, winning a Churchill maiden race at a one-turn mile trip shorter than his best before notching an eye-catching Fair Grounds dirt-route allowance score Nov. 23. Snead traveled sweetly from the start, drew away to win by more than seven lengths, and galloped out full of run. “We always were going to the dirt with the horse at some point,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “This is obviously a much tougher spot, but he’s really improved, and he’ll improve again.” If Nash also improves, it won’t matter. Agoo, Legalize meet in Sugar Bowl Six 3-year-olds are entered to race six furlongs in the $100,000 Sugar Bowl, with Agoo and Legalize the two likely favorites over American Rascal. Agoo is one race ahead of Legalize, scoring a second-start maiden win at Keeneland before finishing a solid second at Churchill going 6 1/2 furlongs in the $225,000 Ed Brown Stakes. Stuck on the rail the entire trip, Agoo raced hesitantly down the backstretch and was somewhat intimidated trying to hit a gap along the fence in midstretch. “First time he was inside,” trainer Whit Beckman said. “He was still a little green.” Agoo didn’t come to Fair Grounds with the Sugar Bowl on his agenda, but “he trained so well and had so much energy I went ahead and entered him,” Beckman said. Legalize finished fifth as the 2-1 favorite in his Keeneland debut before a sharp seven-furlong score Nov. 25 at Churchill. “It was surprising he needed his first start because he was so forward in his training,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “He’s really fast.” American Rascal is the field’s lone stakes winner having easily captured the Zia Juvenile on Nov. 28. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.