Quote:
Originally Posted by King Glorious
Rollo, you're good at explaining things to make them make sense. Can you help me with this one? This is Asmussen talking about Nashville:
"Part of the thinking of running him in the Perryville instead of the Breeders' Cup Sprint was the opportunity to run in the Malibu and here we are," said Asmussen.
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Asmussen wasn't sure how good the horse is and is only worried about getting a Grade 1 victory so he can cement a high $$ breeding right from Winstar. Hedged his bets that the Malibu would be easier than the BC Sprint, plus he gets a 4 lb break in the weights for not having won a graded stakes.
Really though, who knows what sorts of contingencies and agendas Winstar has? Maybe they would want to retire him if he won the BC. They aren't running Global Campaign in the Pegasus because the interest in him as a stud has already maxed out and it would be too risky to expose him to a loss in the Pegasus. Also, if Nashville had won the BC Sprint, maybe they figured they would be the favorite for the sprinter Eclipse and not want to risk the horse losing at 7 furlongs for the Malibu.
And the Speightstown line is not known for soundness so perhaps they anticipated a hard race in the BC with a plan in place to rest the horse afterward regardless of the result.