Nashville Notions

Nashville Notions is a 6-year-old with a career record that reads like a slow burn — 1 win and 2 places from 10 races, meaning it has found the winner's enclosure in just 1 in every 10 outings. The recent form figure of 8-5-blank-blank-8-1 shows a horse that has largely been running in the middle of the pack, with those two blanks suggesting races where it barely featured. But that final "1" — the Sligo win — is the moment everything clicked. The horse raced again just yesterday, so Kiely clearly believes there is more to come and isn't treating that breakthrough as a one-off.

Sligo is a tight, turning track in the west of Ireland, the kind of place where local knowledge and a horse that handles a sharp circuit can make all the difference. Whether Nashville Notions has a particular affinity for it remains to be seen, but winning there for a first career victory is no fluke of a flat, straightforward track — it takes a horse that can switch on when the pressure is on. At 6 years old, Nashville Notions is no youngster, but horses can carry form well into their mid-years, and a yard willing to keep campaigning a horse this consistently clearly sees something worth chasing.