Nashville opts for softer spot in Perryville Stakes
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nashville could have swum with the sharks on Saturday on the Breeders’ Cup program, but his connections have chosen to take the conservative route with the brilliant but late-blooming colt. Instead, he looms as a big fish in a small pond in the $125,000 Perryville Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters.
The Perryville, which kicks off Saturday’s 12-race card, is the first of three stakes preceding the Breeders’ Cup races. Nashville, who is trained by Steve Asmussen for WinStar Farm and China Horse Club, had been pre-entered for both the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and Dirt Mile. The colt will instead make his third career start – and stakes debut – in the Perryville as he continues to gain racing experience.
“The bottom line is, we have an extremely talented horse, and that makes it very interesting,” Asmussen said. “But if we pass [the Breeders’ Cup], there will be other Grade 1’s in his future.”
Nashville made his debut Sept. 2 at Saratoga and rolled by 11 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 91. He won a Keeneland allowance on Oct. 10 by 9 3/4 lengths. He posted a 101 Beyer that day and is the only member of this field to reach the triple-digit threshold. Ricardo Santana Jr., who was aboard Nashville for the first time in that allowance, will likely have to utilize his mount’s speed, as they have drawn the rail in the field of seven.
Perryville foe Relentless Dancer has flirted with solid company recently. A stakes winner at Evangeline and Charles Town, he most recently finished third in the Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico. That race was won by Yaupon, who will run in the Sprint later Saturday.
The field also includes Fore Left, winner of last year’s Tremont and this year’s Group 3 UAE 2000 Guineas; Little Menace, winner of the Grand Prairie Derby; and Bango, a stakes winner sprinting on Turfway’s Polytrack.
Mind Control tops Lafayette
Asmussen holds a strong hand in the day’s other two undercard stakes for sprinters. In the $150,000 Lafayette Stakes for 3-year-olds and up, he will saddle Engage, winner of the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes over Whitmore in fall 2019 at Keeneland. Engage went on to finish a creditable fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita. In his only start this year, he was fifth in the Grade 2 Vosbugh Stakes on Sept. 26 at Belmont. He is likely to be tighter as he gets class relief on a track he favors with Jose Ortiz in the irons.
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A standout in the Lafayette is millionaire Mind Control, who owns signature victories in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes and Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga. Both those races were at the seven-furlong distance of this race. Mind Control opened 2020 with back-to-back Grade 3 victories at Aqueduct in the Toboggan and Tom Fool. Since then, he has lost four outings, most recently finishing third in the Mr. Prospector at Monmouth Park.
The field also includes Grade 2 Charles Town Classic winner Sleepy Eyes Todd, who was fifth in the Grade 1 Awesome Again last out; graded stakes winner Phat Man, who is making his first start since February; multiple Grade 1-placed True Timber, who was third in the Grade 1 Forego and fourth in the Vosburgh; and 2019 Preakness Stakes runner-up Everfast, who was a close second in the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs to Owendale.
Fillies rematch in Fort Springs
Headlining the $125,000 Fort Springs Stakes for 3-year-old fillies are Wicked Whisper and Ain’t No Elmers, who finished first and second, respectively, in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes on Oct. 3. That marked the first win of the year for Wicked Whisper, who took the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes as a juvenile.
“She’s been definitely interrupted by this year’s racing calendar,” Asmussen said. “She was getting ready late for things, and then with the cancellations, we got off track. It’s beautiful to see her show the quality that she’s always had. There are big things in her future.”
Santana has the mount on Wicked Whisper.
Two well-regarded fillies each is looking for her first stakes win. Merneith, coming off an allowance win at Santa Anita for Bob Baffert, was third in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks earlier this year behind Swiss Skydiver and Speech. She is unbeaten at this six-furlong distance. Motivated Seller has won both her starts – both at six furlongs – by open lengths for Chad Brown.
After finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks, won by eventual Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil, Miss T Too cut back to six furlongs to win a Churchill Downs allowance race by five lengths. She earned a Beyer Figure of 97, the top number in the Fort Springs field.