Nashwa tries to regain best form in Group 1 Falmouth Stakes
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Nashwa, a two-time Group 1 winner last year at age 3, has not looked like the same horse in two starts this season, and she might not even be the best hope in her stable for the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes on Friday at Newmarket.
Nashwa runs for co-trainers John and Thady Gosden, as does the progressive 3-year-old Coppice, who gets nine pounds from her older female rivals in the one-mile, straight course Falmouth.
Nashwa was third in the 1 1/2-mile Oaks last year and excelled at 1 1/4 miles, but the Gosdens cut her back to a mile for the first time in nine starts and 15 months. Perhaps the distance change is motivated by the fact Nashwa has not run to form since returning from a winter break after finishing fourth as the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
It was reasonable to wonder if she was merely rusty finishing fourth as the odds-on favorite May 28 in the Group 2 Prix Corrida, but Nashwa was defeated again at odds-on racing at the Group 3 level June 30 over Newcastle’s all-weather course.
It’s too early to give up on Nashwa. Her connections, after all, are coming right back in a Group 1. But Coppice holds some appeal.
A 3-year-old has won the race four times the last six years, and Coppice’s performance beating 28 rivals in the Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot held plenty of promise. John Gosden frequently takes his time sending horses into top-level competition, and Coppice’s lack of experience above the Group 3 level doesn’t mean she’s not a Grade 1 horse – especially with a meaningful weight break.
Gosden’s last Sandringham win came in 2016 with Persuasive, who three months later finished second in the Group 1 Matron and the following year won a Group 1.
Coppice is a Juddmonte Farms homebred, and Juddmonte’s 2010 Sandringham winner, Timepiece, won the 2012 Falmouth for trainer Henry Cecil.
Favored, surprisingly so, in early betting as of Wednesday was the late-blooming 5-year-old Via Sistina. She also cuts back in trip from nine- and 10-furlong starts, and while she was impressive landing the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes on July 1 at The Curragh, that’s the only Group 1 victory among her 10 starts.
Last year’s Falmouth winner, Prosperous Voyage, also runs, as does a French 3-year-old with a chance, Remarquee, second last month to the very talented Tahiyra in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.
* Adelaide River, a game second behind Auguste Rodin last out in the Irish Derby, leads an eight-horse field entered in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris over 1 1/2 miles at Longchamp on Friday.
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