Canada’s Champion two-year-old filly NITROGEN strolled to a 17-length win in the Grade 2 Wonder Again Stakes at Saratoga in the slop on June, half an hour after her former Woodbine stablemate WINTERBERRY led all the way in the Fury Stakes. Both fillies are owned by Leonard and Jon Green’s D. J. Stables LLC and trained by Mark Casse.
The Fury, at seven furlongs, is a minor prep race for the Woodbine Oaks in July and D.J. Stable had two stakes winners in the five-horse field. Shifty, a 9 1/2 length winner of her season opener on May 11 with an 85 Beyer Speed Figure, was 1-to-2 to win the Fury, worth $125,000.
But Shifty, by Medaglia d’Oro, did not have the speed to go with Winterberry (Frosted – Dreams Are Free by Bellamy Road) and the race was over before it really got going. Patrick Husbands urged his mount to the lead and then kept her busy when Nata Trouble, a daughter of World of Trouble, bid for the lead in the stretch. Winterberry got clear again and won by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:22.87. Nata Trouble was second and Shifty, who was under a hard hold early in the race, flattened out and was third.
The effort was much better than her season opener when she dueled through tough pace splits in the Star Shoot Stakes and faded to fifth. Last year, Winterberry, a $210,000 yearling purchase from breeder David Anderson from the 2023 Keeneland September sale, won her debut and the Glorious Song Stakes, but she ended the year fifth in the Shady Well at 2-to-5 odds.
Winterberry is the first foal for Dreams Are Free, who won two of 14 races and is a half-sister to stakes-placed Off Topic.
At sloppy Saratoga, the Greens and Casse weren’t sure if they should leave Nitrogen in the Wonder Again Stakes, as it was taken off turf.
“We hemmed and hawed and hemmed and hawed and [owner D. J. Stable] kind of pushed me, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s do it.’ When you have owners like [Leonard and Jon Green], you don’t have to worry about getting run over the coals if you make a move, and that’s everything. And we have a wonderful group of owners that let us do what we do. We know that if it isn’t right, because a lot of times it isn’t right, that we’re going to be okay,” Casse said.
“I consumed a lot of ginger today [lozenges to settle his stomach]. I don’t usually get too worried about things, but when you have a horse like her and she’s established herself as the best three-year-old turf filly in North America, you don’t want to hurt her [reputation],” Casse continued. “Luckily, we have a great team and we keep lots and lots of records. I went back and watched her work on December 19 [at Palm Meadows] with Dream On and she worked five-eighths on the dirt in a minute and change and galloped out in [1:13] and I’m like, ‘Yeah, maybe we’ll run her,'” Casse added.
The connections won’t have to worry about a race for her being rained off the turf in the future.
“Maybe I should have run her on the dirt a little sooner. She ran a mile in [1:36.16] and probably could have run in [1:34], so she was pretty impressive. I know it was a small field and I know they were turf horses, but still, she was pretty impressive,” said Casse. “I won’t have as many ginger lozenges, I can tell you. I was opening myself up for some scrutiny from so many smart people that had things to say. The crazy thing is, I told Jon Green this morning [that] she is better today than I’ve ever seen her in her life. That was another thing that made them say, ‘Let’s run.’”
With the victory, Ortiz won for the third time in the 12 runnings of the Wonder Again. His previous wins came aboard Cambier Parc in 2019 and Sweet Melania in 2020. He said that he never received instructions from Casse.
“She broke good. I sat right behind my stablemate and I was ready to go. I mean, I was on the best horse, no question about it,” said Ortiz. “I tapped her on the shoulder just to keep her attention. Usually when she makes the lead, she kind of switches leads and hangs around. Today, she didn’t, so I caught her attention, made sure she was there, and she was traveling great every step of the way.”
Nitrogen paid $2.80 for a $2 win bet. There was no place, show, exacta, trifecta, or superfecta wagering on the race due to the scratches of Al Jafara, Virgin Colada, Opulent Restraint, Love You Anyway, and Laurelin.
Nitrogen is a daughter of Medaglia d’ Oro out of the Uncle Mo mare Tiffany Case. With the winner’s share of the $300,000 purse, she increased her bankroll to $1,146,604 via an 8-5-1-2 and it is unblemished in her sophomore campaign with the quintet of straight wins.
~ with files from NYRA media
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