HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – In the span of about an hour, the royal blue silks of Godolphin remained in the winner’s circle after three stakes between Oaklawn Park and Fair Grounds. Nash was the lead-off horse, taking the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn, where one race later First Mission accounted for the Grade 3, $600,000 Essex Handicap. And right after the Essex, Tarifa scored in Louisiana, taking the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks. The three horses are homebreds, and all are trained by Brad Cox. Jockey Florent Geroux was at Oaklawn to ride Nash and First Mission, while Flavien Prat was aboard Tarifa. Cox won four races on the Oaklawn card Saturday and at Fair Grounds he also captured the Louisiana Derby. Geroux won three races on the card at Oaklawn. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. First Mission ($4.20) tracked the pace in the Essex, as Great Escape took the field through an opening quarter in 23.34 seconds, a half-mile in 47.63 and six furlongs in 1:12.05. First Mission took over after six furlongs, and bounded home five lengths in front. War Campaign finished second, a half-length in front of third-place finisher Time for Trouble. First Mission, who was coming off a troubled ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational, covered the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:49.76.  “It’s a bit of class relief for the horse,” Geroux said in a post-race interview conducted by Oaklawn. “He’d run some very good races, in the Lexington and the Clark.” First Mission is now 4 for 7 for earnings of $822,110. Last year, he won the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland and was just edged when second in the Clark at Churchill Downs. First Mission is a son of Street Sense. Nash ($4) won his first stakes in the Hot Springs. He was much the best in the race, stalking leader Frost Free through fractions of 23.15 for the opening quarter, 47.64 for the half-mile and 1:12.56 for six furlongs. Nash came three wide into the stretch, overtook the leaders, and won the mile race that ended at the sixteenth pole in hand. He covered the distance on a track upgraded to fast for the race in 1:38.49. “He was nice and relaxed and when I gave him the cue, he was there for me,” Geroux said in a post-race interview conducted by Oaklawn. Nash won by 5 1/2 lengths over Carbone. It was another 2 1/4 lengths back in third to Frost Free. Nash is a son of Medaglia d’Oro and the Grade 2-winning mare Sara Louise. He has now won 2 of 6 starts for earnings of $264,500. Earlier this season, Nash ran third in the Gun Runner and second in the Grade 3 Lecomte, both at Fair Grounds.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.