Brilliant Nashville Back to His Best
18 January 2016
Evergreen NZB Ready to Run Sale graduate Nashville (NZ) (Darci Brahma) was back to his best with a brilliant winning performance in the Group 3 $70,000 Mill Reef Winery Trentham Stakes (2100m) at Trentham on Saturday.
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Nashville winning the Group 3 Trentham Stakes. |
The seven-year-old gelding may have been away from the winner’s circle since his Group 3 Canterbury Gold Cup victory over 21 months ago, but the son of Darci Brahma had placed in the Group 1 Herbie Dyke Stakes, Group 1 Captain Cook Stakes and the Group 2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile last season, showing he is still competitive in feature races.
The return to form by the Adrian and Harry Bull trained gelding coincided with the return of Rosie Myers in the saddle. The two were last paired in the 2013 Group 1 Spring Classic at Hastings, finishing second.
Myers settled Nashville at the back of the field, angling out to be on the outside of the Dead 5 track in the straight. The pair came with a strong late run to beat Bel Sorriso (NZ) (Keeper) by a long neck, ahead of Show The World (NZ) (High Chaparral) in third place.
Nashville appreciated the drop in weight to 55kgs under the set-weight and penalties conditions of theGroup 3 feature, a drop of 5kgs from his last run in the Listed Marton Cup.
“It was good to see him back to his best on Saturday. We worked him yesterday and he’s come through the race good,” commented Harry Bull. “We’ll gallop him in a few days, then make a decision whether to race in Saturday’s Group 2 Wellington Cup.”
Last year’s Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne has been booked to take the mount, with Myers already booked to ride Pentathlon (NZ) (Pentire).
Saturday’s victory was his tenth overall win which also includes the two victories in the Group 1 Otaki WFA Classic in his 44-start career, earning $794,132 for his owners AM & Mrs RE Bull.
Beamish Bloodstock purchased Nashville at the 2010 NZB Ready to Run Sale for $40,000 from Chesterfields Ltd.
The NZB Ready to Run Sale enjoyed a stellar day at Trentham with Dukedom (NZ) (Bachelor Duke) victorious in the Group 1 Levin Classic, the second successive year a graduate of the NZB Ready to Run Sale has won the Group 1 feature for three-year-olds following the win of Gaultier (NZ) (Rios) last season.
Nashville was bred by Blyth Tait’s Chesterfields Ltd. Nashville is out of Royal Kiss (Royal Academy) who is the dam of four winners including Australia stakes performer China Causeway (Giant’s Causeay). Nashville is also a half sister to Sweet Maggie (Danehill Dancer), the dam of Group 3 Eclipse Stakes winner Vinnie Eagle (I Am Invincible).
He is by Darci Brahma who is currently leading the Sires Table in New Zealand and has 46 yearlings catalogued at NZB’s National Yearling Sales Series next week.
New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales Series takes place on 25 January – 31 January. The Premier, Select and Festival catalogues are available online now or can be requested from [email protected].