Nitrogen works in company in preparation for Alabama
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Nitrogen, who will switch surfaces for the second time this season when she runs in the Grade 1 Alabama here Aug. 16, had her final tune-up for that race by working five furlongs in 1:01.92 on Wednesday morning over Saratoga’s main track.
Nitrogen worked in company with the unraced 2-year-old Copa de Plata. After going their first eighth in 13.57 seconds, Nitrogen and her workmate got their last half-mile in 48.35 and their final quarter in 23.53.
“I wanted to get [Copa de Plata] tired and I wanted to give her some company,” said trainer Mark Casse, who put jockey Dylan Davis on Copa de Plata. “I said to Dylan, ‘Did Nitrogen get tired?’ He said, ‘Are you kidding me? I looked over and the boy is hanging on for dear life.’
“She’s just so kind,” Casse added. “She’ll do whatever you ask her to do.”
Casse spaces Nitrogen’s workouts 10 days apart, so this move will be her last before the Alabama. La Cara, Casse’s other Alabama contender, will have her last workout a little closer to the race because she missed some training time due to the quarantine of a barn she was in that forced her to scratch from the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 19.
Nitrogen has won 5 of 6 starts this year. She began her 3-year-old season with four stakes wins on turf. When the Grade 3 Wonder Again on June 7 came off the turf, Casse kept her in the race and Nitrogen won by 17 lengths, beating just two horses.
Immediately after that race, Casse said he was going to run her in the Alabama after she ran on July 5 in the 1 1/8-mile Belmont Oaks, where she was beaten a nose by Fionn in a race in which both horses set course records.
There were 12 3-year-old fillies nominated to the Alabama. In addition to the two Casse runners, others confirmed to run include Good Cheer and Margie’s Intention from the Brad Cox barn, Take Charge Milady, and Queen Azteca.
Queen Azteca, winner of the Group 3 Dubai Oaks for trainer Niels Petersen, is scheduled to arrive here Friday from Norway, according to part-owner Barry Irwin of Team Valor International. Irwin said Queen Azteca wants every bit of the 1 1/4-mile distance, and the plan is for her to remain in the United States after this race and be transferred to Rodolphe Brissett.
-- additional reporting by Mike Welsch
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