Nashville Derby invitees include 4 from Kentucky Derby
The 12 original invitees to Kentucky Downs’s Grade 3 Nashville Derby Invitational include Belmont Derby (G1) winner Test Score, Britain’s Group 2 victor Wimbledon Hawkeye and Kentucky Derby prep winners Sandman, Burnham Square, Tiztastic and Final Gambit.
If an invitation is not accepted for any of the first 12, several other horses are under consideration and may be invited for the Aug. 30 race. Final entries for the 1 5/16-mile turf stakes will be taken, with post positions set, on Monday, Aug. 25.
With a $2 million base purse and another $1.5 million available to Kentucky-breds from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, the Nashville Derby at 1 5/16 miles is America’s richest turf race outside the Breeders’ Cup. The offered purse makes it the most lucrative race held at one track behind the $5 million Kentucky Derby, with its $2 million base purse matching the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
The field promises to bring together an intriguing blend of proven turf horses with Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Sandman and Blue Grass (G1) winner Burnham Square trying grass for the first time.
Amerman Racing’s Test Score has stamped himself among America’s leading 3-year-olds on turf. Trained by Graham Motion, Test Score started his spring with a victory in Keeneland’s Transylvania (G3), a good second in Churchill Downs’ American Turf (G1), an impressive Belmont Derby victory and most recently third by a total of a half-length in the Saratoga Derby (G1).
“It’s going to be a very competitive race, no doubt about it, for the kind of money it is,” Motion said by phone. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for him.”
Trainer James Owen is hoping Wimbledon Hawkeye can replicate last year’s Nashville Derby victory by another Britain-trained horse, Bellum Justum. Wimbledon Hawkeye will have Bellum Justum’s Kentucky Downs jockey in Frankie Dettori, the legendary European rider who postponed an announced retirement at the end of 2023 to ride in the U.S.
The winner of Newmarket’s Juddmonte Royal Lodge (G2) last fall, Wimbledon Hawkeye comes to America off a pair of strong seconds in the Princess of Wales's (G2) and Goodwood’s Gordon Stakes (G3), that by a nose to the promising Merchant.
“We’re very grateful to have been invited,” Owen said via WhatsApp. “The race looks hopefully perfect for him, trip, distance and the course, a little bit up and down. It’s hugely exciting for me and my team. This is our first international runner. The horse will come over with a massive chance.”
Trainer Mark Casse is banking on Sandman being less pace-dependent on grass, allowing him to show the huge late kick he had in the Arkansas Derby. Sandman also finished seventh in a troubled Kentucky Derby run. The Tapit colt’s female family includes multiple grass runners, one being Moon Over Miami, winner of the Nashville Derby in 2020 when it was called the Dueling Grounds Derby.
“All along I’ve felt he’s had grass tendencies,” Casse said. “His pedigree suggests grass.”
Casse also is running Tomasello, who earned a guaranteed spot in the Nashville Derby by winning Ellis Park’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Nashville Derby.
The late-running Burnham Square, sixth in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in Monmouth Park’s Haskell (G1) in his last start, has a pedigree stacked with grass, including his dam Linda and second dam Beautiful Noise.
“I think he’ll like it,” trainer Ian Wilkes said. “Even (sire) Liam’s Map has a tendency to throw grass, and his female side is all grass. Running on the dirt is an outlier to his family.”
Tiztastic won two races in 10 days at Kentucky Downs last year, a $250,000 allowance race for horses who went through Keeneland’s 2023 September yearling sale, followed by victory in the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile. Placed on dirt to pursue the American classics, Tiztastic secured his spot in the Kentucky Derby with victory in the Louisiana Derby (G2). After a 10th in the Kentucky Derby, Tiztastic disappointed in a return to grass for Churchill Downs’ American Derby and the Saratoga Derby but now comes back to the course over which he has had the most success.
“He had a pretty rough trip last time, not the end of the world,” trainer Steve Asmussen said, adding rhetorically, “With a horse that has done as well as him, you’re going to avoid where he has made all his money?”
Final Gambit, fourth in the Kentucky Derby, had his greatest success in taking the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface. The Brad Cox trainee will attempt to earn his first turf triumph after a pair of fifths, by two and 2 1/2 lengths, in the Belmont Derby and Saratoga Derby in his last two starts. Cox said Final Gambit could go in the $2 million Gun Runner at a mile instead.
“We’re still figuring out how to try to get him back to the winner’s circle,” he said.
Trainer Chad Brown saw a way to run the Kentucky-bred Hill Road while getting away from Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Sovereignty. Hill Road’s first two races last year were on turf in Ireland, making his dirt debut with a third at 61-1 odds in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. In four starts this year, he won New York’s Peter Pan (G3) and had thirds in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and, most recently, in the Jim Dandy (G2) won by Sovereignty.
California-based trainer Phil D’Amato is expected to send Grade 3 winner Iron Man Cal, second by a neck in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and most recently second in Del Mar’s Oceanside Stakes, to the race.
The other original invitees are the graded-stakes placed Noble Confessor, Simulate and Maximum Promise.
Limited Liability, winner of last year’s inaugural running, leads the 12 original invitees to the $1 million Mountain Dew Bowling Green Gold Cup Invitation at two miles, also on Aug. 30. Invitations also were extended to the graded-stakes winners Anglophile, winner of the 2023 Dueling Grounds Derby; Balladeer; Germany-based Flatten the Curve; Dashman; Gold Phoenix; Honor Marie, for his turf debut; Nitti and Tawny Port. Others include graded-stakes placed El Razeen, Corruption and San Siro.