SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was this time last year that Nitrogen transitioned from turf to dirt. Victories in the off-the-turf Wonder Again and Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga were Nitrogen’s last two of six wins in a campaign that ended with a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and a 3-year-old filly divisional championship.
Nitrogen’s transition into her 4-year-old season has brought mixed results and reviews. In three starts at Oaklawn Park, she won the Grade 3 Bayakoa in February, finished third in the Grade 2 Azeri in March, and was second in Grade 1 Apple Blossom in April.
Friday, Nitrogen returns to Saratoga looking to get her campaign back on track in the Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps at 1 1/8 miles. She will face five rivals, including the Brad Cox pair of Alpine Princess and Bless the Broken and the up-and-coming 4-year-old Fully Subscribed. Regaled and Cassiar complete the sextet.
Trainer Mark Casse said Jose Ortiz told him Nitrogen was the “most exhausted” she’d ever been after a race when she ran third in the Azeri, a race run over a sloppy track. Both Casse and Ortiz were happy with the effort in the Apple Blossom when Nitrogen finished second to Claret Beret, a filly who recently died due to a cardiac event following a recent workout.
Of the Apple Blossom, Casse said, “I thought her last race was good. Jose [Ortiz] came back and said, ‘I could have been on Rachel Alexandra and not run that filly down.’ He said our filly ran her butt off.”
Casse liked the two workouts Nitrogen has put in at Keeneland since the Apple Blossom and is confident the 4-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro will fire in the Phipps.
“We know she likes Saratoga and she had a great work coming into this race,” Casse said. “I think we’re the horse to beat.”
Fully Subscribed, a daughter of Tiz the Law, came of age at the end of her 3-year-old season, posting decisive victories in the Grade 2 Mother Goose in November and Grade 3 Comely in December. She kicked off her year as the favorite in the Grade 1 La Troienne on May 1 at Churchill Downs, finishing second, one length behind pace-pressing Shred the Gnar.
“Five-month layoff and out in the three path the whole way against a really top filly, she felt it maybe the last sixteenth,” trainer Chad Brown said. “She’s better for it, she’s very fit now. I think this filly, if she stays sound, could be a top horse in this division.”
Alpine Princess made the first two starts of her career in Saratoga, winning a maiden race second time out. She returns to Saratoga in terrific form, having completed her 4-year-old campaign with a victory in the Grade 3 Falls City and, most recently, winning the Grade 2 Doubledogdare at Keeneland with a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure. She began her year with a second to Claret Beret in the Royal Delta.
“Obviously, that win last fall at Churchill was a breakthrough win at the graded stakes level,” Cox said. “She had knocked on the door in a couple of graded stakes.
“She had a great winter. We got one race into her before the Doubledogdare and if she ran as well as we hoped we’d look at a Grade 1. . . . I expect her to run really big based on what she’s done at Churchill since the race.”
Bless the Broken makes Saratoga the fourth track she has visited this year after an allowance at Fair Grounds, a second to Splendora in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita, and a third in the La Troienne.
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“Her last run I thought was a good effort, third best on the day, and there wasn’t a whole lot of change in position,” Cox said, referring to the La Troienne. “With the size of the field, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give her a chance in a Grade 1.”
Regaled, the Grade 3 Delaware Handicap winner of 2025, has finished second in the Azeri and fourth in the Apple Blossom in two starts this year for trainer Whit Beckman. In the Azeri, Regaled finished second to Majestic Oops and in front of Nitrogen, who was third.
Cassiar rallied from well off the pace to finish second, beaten just one length by a sharp Irish Maxima, in the Grade 2 Ruffian at Aqueduct. Trainer Shug McGaughey is adding blinkers to the 4-year-old filly’s equipment on Friday.