SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On the first weekend in November, May Day Ready came to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf having won three straight races. Nitrogen was still a maiden, although a very well-regarded one. May Day Ready finished a strong second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths by European champion Lake Victoria – recent winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas – with Nitrogen another length back in third.
En route to Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Wonder Again Stakes at Saratoga, the fillies’ paths have diverged. Nitrogen comes to the race as the even-money favorite with four straight stakes wins. May Day Ready has had an international adventure and now makes her first start of the season.
“I’ve watched every one of her races,” May Day Ready’s trainer, Joe Lee, said of Nitrogen. “Definitely, she’s taken that step from [age] 2 to 3. Let’s hope we take that kind of step.”
Nitrogen was third in the Grade 1 Natalma, beaten less than a length, before the Breeders’ Cup. Since then, she has annexed the Ginger Brew, Grade 3 Florida Oaks, Grade 2 Appalachian, and, five weeks ago, the Grade 2 Edgewood.
“She loves what she does,” trainer Mark Casse said. “She’s in kind of this cycle or rhythm.”
Casse, who expressed no concerns about the potential of wet turf for the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies, describes Nitrogen as “very simple” to train. Her tractability is a key factor, allowing regular rider Jose Ortiz to get her as involved as she needs to be without expending excess energy.
“One of the things that makes her so good, it’s what made Tepin” – Casse’s Eclipse-winning turf mare – “so good: the ability to maneuver wherever you want to be, and to get her to relax and come running when you ask her,” Casse said.
May Day Ready won her first three starts prior to the Breeders’ Cup, including the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies and Grade 2 Jessamine. She skipped the Edgewood at Churchill Downs on May 2 after coming into season, displaying behavior that was reminiscent of when she traveled to Japan last fall and finished 13th in the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies.
“In the paddock and in the holding area [in Japan], she was kind of bucking at the horse behind her,” Lee said. “Pretty much the same happened before the Edgewood. Two or three weeks before, she was bucking and just kind of seemed irritated.”
May Day Ready has since been put back on Regu-Mate, which she was not permitted to race on in Japan. Regu-Mate is a synthetic progestin intended to suppress estrus. It is often used on fillies and mares who compete in various sports. May Day Ready raced with it last year.
“Hopefully that’s behind her,” Lee said. “[I’m] really pleased with how she’s doing and how she looks and how she’s eating and feeling. [I’m] so happy with her condition.”
The pre-race proceedings will be the key challenge for Opulent Restraint, a stakes winner last fall. She was most recently a close second in the Memories of Silver at Aqueduct, caught late by unbeaten Laurelin, who may be a sleeper in the eight-horse Wonder Again.
“She is a challenging horse mentally,” trainer Chad Brown said of Opulent Restraint. “We’ll do plenty of schooling in the paddock with her. She needs to compose herself in the paddock and before the race. [If she] runs her race and doesn’t waste any energy doing other things, I think she can take a step forward.”
Opulent Restraint, who races forwardly, is one of three entries for Brown, along with the late-runners Virgin Colada, coming off two challenging trips in a row, and Al Jafara, a Keeneland allowance winner in her U.S. debut.
Opulent Restraint and Virgin Colada were both Saratoga maiden winners last summer, and Brown is happy to run both – particularly the “headstrong” Opulent Restraint – in familiar surroundings.
“The last two times she’s run, she had to ship the day of her race,” he said. “I think running out of her own stall could provide a better performance.”
Completing the field are Bessie Abott, second to Al Jafara while making her stateside debut for Casse, and maiden winner Love You Anyway. Casse said Bessie Abott’s status is “still under discussion.”
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