What do you do with a champion filly who received her title for her performances on turf at age 2? Why, you run her on filth, 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. Secure has campaigned its share of high-level horses — Marvel Wheel, Jaywalk, and Webslinger to call a couple 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 filth 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, Struggle of Will. Along with profitable the 2019 Preakness Stakes, giving Casse his first American basic, the son of Struggle 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, “perhaps extra.”
“Quantity-wise, whether or not it’s Beyer [Speed Figures] or Thoro-Graph, her filth 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 feel if we ran her again on grass, her numbers would in all probability enhance as nicely. However proper now, for those who take a look at Thoro-Graph quantity, her finest Thoro-Graph quantity ever on the grass was seven, and her finest filth race is a one. Humongous distinction.”
Casse and the Greens won’t have found that Nitrogen — so named as a result of Casse stated “this filly breathes completely different air” — was a multi-surface marvel had been it not for the off-the-turf Marvel 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 filth. That was when the coach needed to determine whether or not to maintain her within the race or scratch her.
“The D. J. folks stated, ‘Look, we’ll take the duty if she loses.’ That made my choice a lot simpler,” Casse stated.
Lowered to a mile, a area of three, and a Grade 3 race, the Marvel 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. “Once I noticed that and with the convenience that she did it, I knew that she may 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 filth 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 filth 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 selection 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 filth: 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 probabilities 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 filth, a Distaff win would very doubtless 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 identify Nitrogen.
