Returning to the track where she won last year's Alabama Stakes (G1), Nitrogen orchestrated another wow performance at Saratoga Race Course to power to a 12 3/4-length victory under Jose Ortiz in the June 5 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1).
Her final time of 1:46.93 for the 1 1/8-mile Ogden Phipps was a tick off the track record set by Lawyer Ron, who blazed that distance in 1:46.64 while winning the 2007 Whitney Handicap (G1).
Winning Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse said: "When they said it was one-fifth off the track record, Jose (Ortiz) said, 'I could have broken it.' He said he just kind of geared her down."
The 4-year-old homebred, who earned champion 3-year-old filly honors for the family-run D. J. Stable, is undefeated in three starts on the dirt at the upstate New York track. She also won the off-the-turf Wonder Again Stakes (G3) by 17 lengths last year at Saratoga.
Fully Subscribed and Bless the Broken finished second in a dead heat in the $500,000 Ogden Phipps. Another 3 1/4 lengths back in third was Regaled in the six-horse field. Cassiar and Alpine Princess completed the order of finish.
"She loves Saratoga. Mark and his team have done a phenomenal job getting her peaked and ready," said Jon Green, who is part of the father-son team behind D. J. Stable. "Not to say she wasn't peaking at Oaklawn, because she was running some good races, but she loves it here, and this is the second quarter of her year."
The Ogden Phipps is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series event for the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Keeneland, a race in which Nitrogen finished second last year at Del Mar, and will again be the year-end goal for the bay filly.
Unchallenged on the front end in the Ogden Phipps, Nitrogen rolled through fractions of :23.74, :47.26, 1:10.48, and 1:34.66. Inside the sixteenth pole, the winner began drifting outward several paths before Ortiz corrected her.
"That's really been her MO; she gets a little lackadaisical on the front end," the younger Green said. "You get a little worried about that because when you're in a grade 1, there are other grade 1 fillies of that caliber, and you worry sometimes that it might come back to bite her. It didn't today. Jose came off the horse today, and I asked him, 'Did you have any worries?' He said, 'As soon as the gate opened, I knew she was ready.'"
Green said winning with a homebred hits differently.
"We have a breeding operation and sales operation and a racing operation," he added. "When Mark Casse saw this filly as a yearling, he looked at her and said, 'She breathes different air.' That's how we got the name Nitrogen."
Nitrogen returned $4 as the even-money favorite.
The Ogden Phipps victory brings her career record to 8-5-3 in 16 career starts for earnings of $2,730,854.
In her first start of the year, Nitrogen won the Bayakoa Stakes (G3), followed by a third in the Azeri Stakes (G2), and a second in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1), all at Oaklawn Park.
By Darley's pensioned sire Medaglia d'Oro, Nitrogen is out of the Uncle Mo mare Tiffany Case.
