Nitrogen Asserts Dominance in Edgewood Score
Nitrogen left no doubt who the queen of the 3-year-old filly turf division is, rocketing to a 3 1/2-length victory in the $575,000 Edgewood Stakes (G2T) May 2 at Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” trainer Mark Casse enthused after D. J. Stable’s star performer rolled to her fourth straight black-type win.
Casse said Nitrogen is steadily “catching up” to some of the nice turf fillies he’s trained through the years, including 2016 Edgewood heroine Catch a Glimpse , a filly who captured two grade 1 wins for the Hall of Famer.
“She still has a ways to go toward getting there, but I think we’ll find out more this summer when she runs in some grade 1s,” Casse said. The trainer believes the extra distance of a race like the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T), contested over 1 1/8 miles, “might be even better” for the late-running Nitrogen.
Catch a Glimpse won the Edgewood before taking the Belmont Oaks two starts later.
Racing with the poise expected of an even-money favorite, Nitrogen tucked into a stalking third along the rail while 17-1 shot Gowells Delight led the way through early moderate fractions of :23.67 and :48.87. Into the far turn, it was Nitrogen’s barnmate, Vixen , who launched the first attack on Gowells Delight, moving to within a half-length of the leader turning for home. However, once jockey Jose Ortiz angled Nitrogen off the rail and into the clear, the race was over from there.
“She broke great and put me into a great position around both turns,” Ortiz said. “When I tipped out at the quarter pole, she was loaded.”
Blazing home her final quarter-mile in :22.54, Nitrogen ($3.94) finished much the best under the wire in a final time of 1:41.58 over a firm turf course.
“She’s so nice because she cuts off for Jose (Ortiz), and he just taps her on the shoulder and she takes off,” Casse said. “She’s usually outside and they had her pinned in a little bit. She’s a big filly and she pushed her way out and said ‘get out of my way.'”
Lush Lips , runner-up to the winner in the Florida Oaks (G3T), played bridesmaid to Nitrogen once more in the Edgewood, narrowly getting the upper hand on third-place finisher Vixen. Vixen, also owned by D. J. Stables in partnership with Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, was exiting a second-place finish to Nitrogen in the Appalachian Stakes (G2T) April 8 at Keeneland.
With the Edgewood, her fourth win in seven career starts, Nitrogen sits just short of the $1 million mark in earnings with $981,604. She is one of four graded stakes winners this year for the prolific Darley stallion Medaglia d’Oro , the sire of Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T) hero Spirit of St Louis and Kentucky Oaks favorite Good Cheer . A homebred for D. J. Stable, Nitrogen is produced from the stakes-placed Uncle Mo mare Tiffany Case and is a half sibling to 2023 Toronto Cup Stakes winner Love to Shop (Violence ).
