Most Exciting

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Betsy

He’s closely related to Happy Saver, as their dams are half-sisters and their third dam is Weekend Surprise.

Both horses are examples of the Rasmussen Factor; Weekend Surprise appears close up in their pedigrees on both the sire and dam sides through different horses (Lassie's Legacy, A.P. Indy).

[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.

[RolloTomasi]

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.

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.

[RolloTomasi]

Darain made his US debut a losing one, running 2nd as the favorite with 1st time Lasix in a turf allowance race at Fair Grounds.

Interesting race as he just missed by a 1/2 length from off the pace but was 7 lengths clear of the 3rd place finisher. Fairly unusual for a turf race. Final time was in range of the course record.

It was a good rags-to-riches or David and Goliath story, too. The winner, Two Emmys, broke his maiden for a $20K tag and was sold for a mere $4,500 as a yearling. Darain on other hand, out of the great racemare Dar Re Mi and by uber-stallion Dubawi, sold for over 1000x that when purchased for $4.8 million.

Two Emmys wasn't completely lacking in pedigree, though. His second dam was a full sister to grass champion Sunshine Forever.