Nashville looking to find lost form
Hot Springs, Ark., did not turn out well for the 5-year-old horse named Nashville, who will try to get his career back on track Friday in New Orleans when he runs in the featured seventh race at Fair Grounds.
Nashville is one of six horses entered in a six-furlong dirt race open to third-level allowance horses or $80,000 claimers. He’s listed at 7-5 on the track’s morning line but figures to go postward an odds-on favorite despite exiting the worst showing of his six-start career.
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Nashville didn’t debut until September of his 3-year-old season but wasted no time making an impression. He won his debut over a sloppy Saratoga surface by more than 11 lengths with a 91 Beyer Speed Figure and validated that performance with two romping wins during Keeneland’s fall meeting of 2020. The second of those came in the Perryville Stakes, which Nashville won in a jog. That was the last time Nashville visited the winner’s circle.
Favored in the Grade 1 Malibu in December 2020, Nashville led early but faded to finish fourth, beaten eighth lengths by victorious Charlatan. Unraced for nearly a year, Nashville ran creditably finishing second behind a sharp effort from Hollis in a Dec. 10 Oaklawn allowance race contested over a sloppy track, but instead of taking a step forward Jan. 29 in the King Cotton Stakes, Nashville dueled and faded to seventh.
“The first race back, off the layoff and with the slop, you could understand,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “I fully expected him to win the King Cotton.”
Nashville has posted five workouts since being shipped to Fair Grounds, and even a return to his December form probably wins the Friday feature. He’s drawn outside his main speed rival Long Weekend, who’s also the entrant most likely to pull an upset. Ebben would have a chance at a longer distance. He fervently dislikes a wet track and ran on one last out, but he has needed at least seven furlongs to show his best.
