Nashville possible for Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland
After performing far off key last month in the King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park, Nashville was back in tune Thursday at Fair Grounds, winning a high-level allowance race by 4 3/4 lengths. Nashville ran six furlongs in 1:08.62, the fastest Fair Grounds time at the distance in more than two years and got a strong 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
The fractions Nashville laid down Thursday, 21.89 and 44.43, were as fast as a horse can run over the Fair Grounds main track.
“He is one of the fastest horses we’ve ever had,” said Elliott Walden, president and CEO of racing operations at WinStar Farm, which owns Nashville with the China Horse Club.
Nashville, trained by Steve Asmussen, impressively won his first three starts after making the races in 2020, taking his first defeat when he faded to finish fourth in the Grade 1 Malibu on Dec. 26, 2020. Nashville didn’t race again for nearly a year, and after a decent comeback allowance race, he ran the worst race of his life in the King Cotton.
“Steve was shaking his head for a month at what happened in his last race, He just laid an egg in that one,” Walden said.
Nashville’s lone stakes win, in the $125,000 Perryville, came at Keeneland, as did his first-level allowance victory. Nashville could wind up there again in the April 9 Commonwealth Stakes over seven furlongs. “That would be a consideration,” Walden said.