SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When Saturday's $300,000 Wonder Again Stakes for 3-year-old fillies was taken off a waterlogged Saratoga turf course - and, not only that, moved to a different configuration on the main track - trainer Mark Casse said he consumed a good deal of ginger lozenges to settle the butterflies in his stomach while deciding what course to chart with divisionally-dominant Nitrogen as other scratches poured in.
"I consumed a lot of ginger today," Casse said. "I usually don't get too worried about things, but when you have a horse like her, and she's established herself as the best turf 3-year-old filly in North America ... "
Ultimately, Casse went back and watched a video of Nitrogen breezing on the dirt last December, at the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida.
"She worked five-eighths on dirt in a minute, and galloped out in 1:13, and I said 'Okay,'" Casse said.
As it turned out, the Wonder Again was basically a paid workout. With regular rider Jose Ortiz like a statue in the irons, Nitrogen cruised by 17 lengths in a field that scratched down to just three horses, recording her fifth straight victory.
The Wonder Again was shorted from its original 1 1/16 miles to one mile when it was moved to the main track. As a result, it was run out of Saratoga's Wilson Chute as essentially a 1 1/2-turn race; the field broke on a short straightaway into the clubhouse turn before making a left onto the backstretch. As another result of its surface switch, the Wonder Again was also automatically downgraded one level, to a Grade 3 event from its original Grade 2. The American Graded Stakes Committee has the discretion to review the result and restore its prior grade.
Casse credited D J Stable, whose new-millionaire homebred daughter of Medaglia d'Oro is now 8-5-1-2 on her career, with supporting him in making the proper decisions for its runners.
"When you have owners like them and you don't have to worry that you're going to be run over the foals if you make a [wrong] move - that's everything," Casse said.
Casse also ran Bessie Abott, owned by Team Valor and Gary Barber, in the Wonder Again, and that filly broke like a shot and led into the backstretch through a moderate opening quarter of 24.88 seconds, with the field in a single-file line as Nitrogen sat an unhurried second and Grade 2 winner May Day Ready, making her first start since December, in third. Nitrogen began to come to Bessie Abott's hip after the half in 47.89. She came to even terms around the far turn, entirely under her own power, as Bessie Abott came under a ride and May Day Ready was urged to come closer. There were no questions from there. Nitrogen widened as she pleased, with Ortiz high in the irons at the wire. Bessie Abott was second, 8 1/2 clear of May Day Ready.
The time for the mile on the sloppy, sealed main track was 1:36.16.
Al Jafara, Laurelin, Love You Anyway, Opulent Restraint, and Virgin Colada were the scratches from the original field. Because the race scratched down to such a small field, there was no place, show, exacta, trifecta, or superfecta wagering. Nitrogen (91 Beyer Speed Figure) returned $2.80 as the heavy favorite.
The Wonder Again had been intended to serve as a local prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Belmont Oaks July 5 on the Saratoga turf. Casse had mentioned that race as a major summer target for Nitrogen, who has now annexed, in succession, the Ginger Brew, Grade 3 Florida Oaks, Grade 2 Appalachian, Grade 2 Edgewood, and the Wonder Again. He said keeping the filly moving forward toward her bigger goals was a major factor in remaining in Saturday's race.
"That's one of the things we looked at," Casse said. "It was one of the decisions made, because we wanted her in this pattern. I talk about it all the time and I believe in it. I've got her in a pattern, and I didn't want her to lose that."
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.