The Nashville Derby is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for three years olds, over a distance of one and five-sixteenths miles on the turf held annually in late August or early September at Kentucky Downs racetrack in Franklin, Kentucky during their short turf meeting.
A field of eight entrants lined up and the event was won by the James Lawrence II trained My Afleet who started at 8/1 defeating the favorite Medal Count who earlier in the year finish third in the Belmont Stakes by a nose in a time of 2:14.10.
[3] Later, My Afleet continued his career as a steeplechaser winning an event as a ten-year-old in 2021 at Willowdale in Pennsylvania and setting a new track record for the three-mile timber course.
Kentucky Downs co-manager Ron Winchell said that the name change reflected the track's close proximity to Nashville, Tennessee.
The positioning of the Nashville Derby at the end of August, Winchell added, was designed to attract American and European horses, as well as fit between major three-year-old turf stakes run in Kentucky and New York.