Vixen comes into Saturday’s $250,000 Tepin Stakes at Churchill Downs having been chasing a pretty good filly called Nitrogen around. Her connections know a little something about her.
Nitrogen, a homebred for the Green family’s D. J. Stable, is the leader of this 3-year-old turf filly division, riding a five-race win streak into the summer. Vixen, whom D. J. Stable co-owns with Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, won the Sweetest Chant and Grade 3 Herecomesthebride earlier this year before finishing second in the Grade 2 Appalachian and third in the Grade 2 Edgewood to Nitrogen. Both fillies are trained by Mark Casse.
“It’s amazing,” Jonathan Green said. “The two of them have trained together for such a long time that they were kind of 1 and 1A in our barn for a good stretch.”
Vixen gets away from her stablemate, who is in New York for the summer and bound for the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on July 5, in Saturday’s Tepin. Beyond merely changing up the competition, remaining at Churchill Downs has allowed for the filly to settle mentally and to have better spacing between her races.
“When we’re looking at a game plan, we’re really trying to match up personalities of the horses with the time frame,” Green said. “Nitrogen is a little bit sturdier kind of filly. She really prefers to train hard – she really liked her time on the racetrack and then will relax when she’s in the barn.
“Vixen, what we’ve learned is she likes a little bit more time between races, and it just gives her a chance to reboot and reenergize. The time between the Appalachian and the Edgewood, maybe she regressed a little bit. Giving her the extra time, [eight weeks] now between races, has really enabled her to blossom and develop, and we feel like that’s going to catapult her into the second half of her 3-year-old campaign.”
Lush Lips finished second to Nitrogen in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks and the Edgewood. She was a vet scratch from the Grade 3 Regret on May 31 at Churchill. Princess Attitude is the only other member of this field with a stakes placing, finishing third in the Hilltop at Pimlico.
American Derby
The brother race to the Tepin is the $250,000 American Derby, in which Reagan’s Wit, a potential rising star in the 3-year-old turf division, faces Tiztastic and possibly Flying Mohawk, who are both moving back to turf after Kentucky Derby runs.
Reagan’s Wit was second by a neck to eventual Grade 1 winner Zulu Kingdom in the Columbia at Tampa, then finished fourth on a wet turf course in the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland. He scored his first stakes win in his fifth career start, the James W. Murphy at Pimlico. Splitting horses while full of run, he powered clear to win by 3 1/4 lengths despite lugging in while not wanting to change off his left lead in the stretch.
“He’s kind of an immature-minded colt,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “Still has a lot to learn, but he’s getting there. We’ve tried different things with him – we tried blinkers, he really did not like that, so he’s just got to figure it out on his own with racing. He’s on the right path.”
DeVaux was encouraged to see him kick clear after “hanging with his company in the race before.”
Tiztastic won a pair of races at Kentucky Downs last year, including the Juvenile Mile, before moving to dirt. He won the Louisiana Derby and finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby. David Fiske, racing manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said Tiztastic’s long-term goal is a return to Kentucky Downs, where co-owner Ron Winchell is the co-managing partner.
Flying Mohawk scored both of his career wins on turf – including a Churchill maiden – and a synthetic stakes placing in the Jeff Ruby Steaks earned him his Derby spot, where he finished 18th. He was supposed to make his turf return in the Pennine Ridge at Saratoga, but it was rained off the turf. That was intended as a prep for the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Derby on July 4. As of midweek, trainer Whit Beckman said that scratching to go straight to the Belmont Derby without a prep was still under consideration.
If Flying Mohawk does run Saturday, Beckman expects him to be forwardly placed.
“Based off the way he’s training, he wants to run probably closer to the pace, like he did in his maiden win,” Beckman said. “It’ll probably be a pretty fast course. I wouldn’t assume he’ll be on the lead, but I think he’ll be close. He’s sharp. He missed that last race.”
The Tepin and American Derby join the Grade 2, $500,000 Wise Dan for older horses as a special turf pick three wager on the Saturday card. All three races also will be part of the pick six sequence that had a carryover of more than $1.2 million heading into Thursday’s card.
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