Kentucky Heat Alters Nitrogen’s Plans; Jockey Club Gold Cup Now Under Consideration
The calendar may say September, but the Kentucky heat has already begun influencing the stakes schedule for one of the nation’s top older females.
Champion Nitrogen will bypass next Saturday’s $400,000 Grade 2 Locust Grove Stakes at Churchill Downs after trainer Mark Casse decided against shipping the 4-year-old filly from Saratoga to Louisville amid a stretch of unusually hot weather.
Casse had been preparing to send Nitrogen to Kentucky on Saturday for the 1 1/16-mile Locust Grove, but the temperatures made the trip an unnecessary risk.
“It’s just too hot,” Casse told Daily Racing Form. “I don’t want to ship her.”
The decision takes Nitrogen out of what had been shaping up as an intriguing meeting with Splendora, last year’s champion female sprinter. Instead, Casse plans to send Nitrogen to Belmont Park early next week while he and owners D. J. Stable evaluate the next step for the reigning champion 3-year-old filly.
And one of those options would put Nitrogen in an entirely different kind of test.
The $1 million Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, scheduled for Sept. 18, is under consideration. The 1 1/4-mile event is traditionally one of the most important races on the New York fall calendar and is open to males and females.
Nitrogen would be stepping into open company should she take that route, potentially facing Horse of the Year Sovereignty.
That matchup, however, is far from certain.
Sovereignty, who defeated Nitrogen in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 8, developed an abscess in a hind foot and is scheduled to miss a planned workout. His availability for the Gold Cup remains unclear.
“We’ll see what’s happening with Sovereignty,” Casse said.
Nitrogen certainly would not be entering the Gold Cup without credentials.
The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro was sensational in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on June 5, when she raced to a 12 3/4-length victory against fillies and mares at Saratoga. Two months later, she tackled Sovereignty in the Whitney and finished a determined second after setting the pace.
The Whitney performance was another indication that Nitrogen is capable of competing at the highest level against top older horses, regardless of sex.
Still, Casse has other options.
The $250,000 Grade 2 Beldame Stakes at Belmont on Sept. 25 would keep Nitrogen against fillies and mares, while the $650,000 Grade 1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 4 would offer another Grade 1 opportunity against her own sex.
The Beldame is run at 1 1/8 miles, as is the Spinster, while the Gold Cup stretches Nitrogen out to 1 1/4 miles.
For Casse, the decision is less about finding a race and more about finding the right race at the right time.
Nitrogen has already established herself as one of the most accomplished older female dirt horses in the country, and the connections ultimately have a larger objective in mind: the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland Oct. 30-31.
Last year, Nitrogen finished second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. With the Breeders’ Cup returning to Kentucky this fall, her likely destination remains the Distaff once again.
For now, though, the immediate question is where she will make her next start.
The heat has taken Churchill Downs out of the equation. Belmont Park is now the destination, and with the Gold Cup, Beldame and Spinster all possibilities, Nitrogen’s next appearance could have a significant impact on the shape of the fall championship picture.
