D. J. Stable’s homebred Nitrogen, twice Grade 1-placed yet still a maiden, will look to graduate in style when she makes her three-year-old debut in Saturday’s $165,000 Ginger Brew for sophomore fillies at Gulfstream Park.
The 14th running of the Ginger Brew, scheduled for one mile on the grass and named for a Canadian champion filly, is the second of two stakes on an 11-race program following the $165,000 Mucho Macho Man for newly-turned three-year-olds on the road to the $1 million Florida Derby (G1).
Nitrogen, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro out of the Uncle Mo mare Tiffany Case, has made all three of her starts at a mile on turf. She was beaten a neck first time out as the favorite August 30 at Woodbine, where she returned to be third by three-quarters of a length in the mid-September Natalma (G1).
The bay filly showed enough to convince the connections, including Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, that a trip to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup was in order, and she rewarded their faith by overcoming a troubled start to be third, 2 ½ lengths behind undefeated multiple Grade 1-winning Irish invader Lake Victoria November 1 in the Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).
That puts Nitrogen on the short list for the Sovereign Award for Champion Two-year-old Filly in Canada.
“Our game plan is to run horses where they belong. It’s hard enough to win races because there’s so much competition, but we prefer to enter, handicap the race and then look to see if we really have a chance or not,” D. J. Stable racing manager Jonathan Green said. “The fact that she was [41-1] in the Natalma and [49-1] in the Breeders’ Cup didn’t deter us, because her numbers showed that she belonged. Her talent level, we felt, was comparable to horses that were running in those races.
“But, yeah, she’s still a maiden. When we were looking to kind of plan out her three-year-old campaign, Mark and I went back and forth about whether we should run her in a maiden special weight race or should we run her in this turf series that Gulfstream has,” he added. “We felt like the turf series was the right way to go for her because, quite frankly, we feel like she belongs in the upper echelon of three-year-old turf fillies.”
It was Casse who convinced Green and his father, Leonard Green, to hang on to Nitrogen rather than put her through the sales ring. D. J. Stable has had a history of success with more than 2,500 winners alone or in partnership including champions Jaywalk and Wonder Wheel.
“The nice thing about Nitrogen, aside from the fact that she’s placed in a couple of Grade 1s, is she’s a homebred,” Jonathan Green said. “We breed for the commercial market. We obviously buy horses as yearlings and 2-year-olds, but when Nitrogen was a baby, maybe just a short yearling, we sent Mark Casse out to the farm to go look at our entire crop of yearlings.
“He came back and gave us a full report and – at the time she wasn’t named – said the Tiffany Case yearling is the kind of filly that we look to buy and can’t afford usually. So if I had my choice of keeping one, I would really lobby for you to keep this one,” he added. “That’s actually why we pulled her from the sale and kept her as a racing prospect for ourselves, and that’s the reason why we still have her to this day.”
Nitrogen is the narrow 5-2 program favorite from Post 10 in an overflow field of 13 for the Ginger Brew, with Jose Ortiz coming in from Fair Grounds to ride.
“To me, the most telling statistic about this race is the horses are pretty comparable Beyer-number wise, and [their] sheet numbers and Equibase numbers. But the fact that Jose, who is wintering in New Orleans, is flying to Florida to ride this horse in a stake race is pretty significant in my estimation,” Green said. “To me, he really feels like she is the horse to beat and that she has a lot of ability, and he has tremendous confidence in her to come in just to ride her.
“I think she’s definitely one of the horses to beat. I don’t think she’s the sole horse to beat. There’s a couple of really nice horses in here that are either trying the distance for the first time or coming back to turf that can certainly step up and, based on their pedigrees, look like they can do something,” he added. “But I think that there’s enough speed in here where Jose can kind of sit off it and stalk, let the speed go out there and sit a couple lengths off of it. Not six or seven lengths like she was in the Breeders’ Cup, but maybe sit a couple lengths off and make a run from the outside.”
Godolphin homebred Civetta returns to Gulfstream where she was a popular and determined neck winner of the 7 ½-furlong Wait a While Nov. 28. Stretching out to a mile for the first time, she was beaten a neck in the six-furlong Matron (G3) on the Aqueduct turf in October and was fourth by two lengths in the 6 ½-furlong Untapable in September at Kentucky Downs in prior stakes attempts.
Stakes winner Special Aviator is undefeated in two starts for the ownership group of Special Aviators, Span Investments and trainer Rohan Crichton. She graduated by 3 ¾ lengths in a one-mile, 70-yard maiden special weight Sept. 21 over the all-weather Tapeta course, then returned to get up by a neck in the one-mile Our Dear Peggy Oct. 26 on the grass.
Special Aviator did not return to the work tab until the end of November and has breezed four times at Gulfstream for her season opener, most recently a half-mile in 49.62 seconds from the gate Dec. 28. Regular rider Edwin Gonzalez gets the return call from Post 7.
“We tried to give her, not a long break, but just something after she won that stakes race, so we missed a race a few weeks ago with an eye on this particular race here. We freshened her up and she’s put on some weight and grown up a little bit, which is always good,” Crichton said.
“She’s a very intelligent filly that just seems to soak everything up. She’s shown an affinity for the turf and the Tapeta. She won going long the first time. She does everything you ask her to do. She waits for the rider and waits for her instructions. She’s a very classy filly.”
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
