Nitrogen to take on males in Grade 1 Whitney

The connections of Nitrogen are raising the degree of difficulty for their champion filly while taking a shot at making history.

Nitrogen, a 12 3/4-length winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps earlier this month, will make her next start against males in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga. She will attempt to become the seventh female to win the prestigious race – which will have its 99th running on Aug. 8 – the last one being Personal Ensign in 1988.

Co-owner Jon Green announced the decision to run Nitrogen, last year’s 3-year-old filly champion, in the Whitney on the “Rail Talk” podcast, which he co-hosts with Joe Bianca.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Green said the Whitney is “the right opportunity, the right distance, the right racetrack, and the right money” to take on the top older males in the sport.

The Whitney field would likely include some of the horses running in Saturday’s $2 million Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs – 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty and Grade or Group 1 winners Magnitude, White Abarrio, and Baeza.

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“I want to take a shot at not just being champion, I want to take a shot at being Horse of the Year,” trainer Mark Casse said. “When you look at her numbers . . . her last number was better than any horse in the Foster.”

Casse is no stranger to running females against the boys. He famously sent Tepin to Royal Ascot, where she beat males in the Queen Anne Stakes. That, eight months after Tepin beat males in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Casse also sent out the filly Got Stormy to win two runnings of the Grade 1 Fourstardave.

Nitrogen has an affinity for Saratoga, something that played a role in the decision to run in the Whitney. In winning the Phipps, Nitrogen ran 1 1/8 miles in the 1:46.93, just .29 of a second off Lawyer Ron’s track record of 1:46.64 set in the 2007 Whitney. Last year, Nitrogen went 2 for 2 over Saratoga’s main track with a 17-length win in the off-the-turf Wonder Again Stakes and a 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Alabama.

Running in the Whitney means Nitrogen will bypass the Grade 2, $250,000 Shuvee on July 24 as well as the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 29. Green said following the Whitney, Nitrogen would run in the Grade 1 Spinster on Oct. 4 at Keeneland.

“This is her time to shine. She loves Saratoga,” Casse said. “She’s in the very good category right now. This would be her opportunity to become great.”

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