What do you do with a champion filly who gained her title for her performances on turf at age 2? Why, you run her on grime, too, in fact, and within the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the World Championships’ signature contest for fillies and mares, no much less.
Len and Jon Inexperienced’s D. J. Steady has campaigned its share of high-level horses — Surprise Wheel, Jaywalk, and Webslinger to call a number of — however their daughter of Medaglia d’Oro out of the Uncle Mo mare Tiffany Case has made a reputation for herself with graded stakes wins on each grime and turf. Her versatility places her in the identical firm as John Henry, Animal Kingdom, and Clever Dan and champions who excelled on each surfaces.
For coach Corridor of Fame coach Mark Casse, the 2024 Canadian champion 2-year-old filly reminds him of a racehorse close to and expensive to his coronary heart, Warfare of Will. Along with profitable the 2019 Preakness Stakes, giving Casse his first American basic, the son of Warfare Entrance additionally turned in a stellar efficiency on the Keeneland inexperienced within the 2020 Maker’s Mark Mile. When requested if Nitrogen is as proficient because the strapping basic winner, the coach replied, “possibly extra.”
“Quantity-wise, whether or not it’s Beyer [Speed Figures] or Thoro-Graph, her grime numbers are superior,” Casse stated. “In fact, she’s matured as nicely and gotten older. As they become old, their numbers have a tendency to enhance. I believe if we ran her again on grass, her numbers would in all probability enhance as nicely. However proper now, in the event you take a look at Thoro-Graph quantity, her greatest Thoro-Graph quantity ever on the grass was seven, and her greatest grime race is a one. Humongous distinction.”
Casse and the Greens may not have found that Nitrogen — so named as a result of Casse stated “this filly breathes totally different air” — was a multi-surface marvel have been it not for the off-the-turf Surprise Once more Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in July. Initially scheduled to be run as a Grade 2 at 1 1/8 miles on the turf, inclement climate necessitated a transfer to the grime. That was when the coach needed to determine whether or not to maintain her within the race or scratch her.
“The D. J. individuals stated, ‘Look, we’ll take the duty if she loses.’ That made my choice a lot simpler,” Casse stated.
Decreased to a mile, a area of three, and a Grade 3 race, the Surprise Once more turned in a blockbuster efficiency for Nitrogen, who bested second-place finisher Bessie Abott by 17 lengths.
“I used to be amazed. She ran one-fifth [of a second] slower than they ran the Met Mile that day,” Casse stated. “After I noticed that and with the benefit that she did it, I knew that she might do it.”
In her subsequent begin, the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 on the turf, Nitrogen had a head benefit on the high of the stretch and dueled with Fionn to the end line, the latter eking out a nostril victory.
Casse then switched her again to grime for the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes introduced by Keeneland Gross sales, by which she then confronted Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer and Grade 1 winner La Cara, and Nitrogen proved as much as the duty in a 1 ½-length victory. With grades stakes wins on each grime and turf, Nitrogen entered uncommon air, a twin floor risk who’s getting higher with age.
Nitrogen enters the 1 1/8-mile $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff because the second alternative on the morning line behind Bob Baffert’s 4-year-old filly Seismic Magnificence, winner of the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes Introduced by Oak Tree Racing Affiliation Aug. 2 at Del Mar. Casse’s filly comes into the race with expertise on the seaside California racetrack, however not on the grime: her third in final yr’s Breeders’ Cup got here within the John Deere Juvenile Fillies Turf. But Casse stays quietly assured about his star’s possibilities on Saturday, 4 weeks after her second by a head to fellow Distaff starter Gin Gin within the Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland.
“She likes to run about each 4 to 5 weeks,” the coach stated. “That’s why we selected the Spinster.”
Primed for an additional profitable activate the grime, a Distaff win would very probably seal her declare for management of the 3-year-old filly division and present as soon as once more why this daughter of Medaglia d’Oro earned the title Nitrogen.
