Nitrogen blasts away from field in G1 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford romp

D.J. Stable’s Kentucky homebred Nitrogen rewarded her even-money favoritism by leading through every point of call and drawing away for an impressive 12 3/4-length score in Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford, contested at 1 1/8 miles for older fillies and mares, on Day Three of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.

Nitrogen, the reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, added another notch to her 4-year-old ledger in capturing the 58th running of the Ogden Phipps and securing the contest’s "Win and You're In" berth to the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff in October at Keeneland.

Breaking sharp from post 5 under Jose Ortiz, Nitrogen led the accomplished six-horse field through fractions of 23.74 seconds, the half in 47.26 and three-quarters in 1:10.48 over the fast main track.

Entering the stretch, Fully Subscribed, under Flavien Prat’s urging, moved up and found daylight near the rail with open running room in front of her. But Nitrogen repelled any possible move early on and thundered home, completing the course in 1:46.93 for an open-lengths victory, not far off the 1:46.64 course record set by Lawyer Ron in the 2007 Grade 1 Whitney. The victory improved Nitrogen to 2-1-1 in four starts in her 4-year-old campaign for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse.

Bless the Broken finished strong under jockey Florent Geroux’s coaxing, drawing to even terms with Fully Subscribed for a dead-heat runner-up effort. Regaled landed fourth while Cassiar and Alpine Princess completed the order of finish.

“When they said it was one-fifth off the track record, Jose said, ‘I could have broken it.’ He said he just kind of geared her down,” Casse said. “All week when Jose was getting on horses for me, I kept saying, ‘The big mare is ready. The big mare is ready.’ And then in the paddock, I said I thought we may be on the lead and I told him, ‘If so, go for it.’ She’s got a high cruising speed. I think maybe when you’re bottled up a little, it doesn’t help her.” 

Nitrogen bolstered her stellar accomplishments and reputation for versatility by winning for the eighth time in 16 starts, extending her career-spanning streak of never finishing off the board in moving to 8-5-3 overall with exactly half of her career starts coming on turf and the other half on dirt.

“Mark told me if she breaks, don't be afraid to go to the lead,” Ortiz said. “She broke. I took the lead. She relaxed well. When I asked her to go, she was there for me. She was much the best, as you saw.

“I asked her from the quarter-pole to the eighth-pole and she opened up,” Ortiz added. “She drifted out a little. I looked back, nobody was coming, so I kind of wrapped up. Now I see that she was a fifth off the record, maybe I should've kept asking her and tried to break it, but she did enough. Now, hopefully she is ready for the next one." 

The 4-year-old Medaglia d’Oro bay has been successful everywhere but has done particularly well at the Spa, where she also marked her first foray on the main track after four turf stakes wins, three of them graded, when she won last year’s Grade 3 Wonder Again that was moved off the turf.

In the summer meet here, she then won the 10-furlong Grade 1 Alabama presented by Keeneland Sales during her Eclipse Award-winning year in which she won six nine starts with three second-place efforts.

“I just want to officially say, I’m tired of hearing everybody say she doesn’t like the dirt,” Casse said. “She is beautiful. You can just see it, she’s grown up. She’s massive. “

The win marked an impressive double for Casse, who saddled Counting Stars to victory in the Grade 1, $500,000 DraftKings Acorn for 3-year-old fillies two races prior.

Nitrogen returned $4.00 on a $2 win wager and increased her career bankroll to $2.73 million through the $275,000 winner's share.

“Today, she [Nitrogen] liked this track,” Ortiz said. “Obviously, she won here nicely last year, and today she proved that she liked it. She's won three races here, the off-the-turf [Wonder Again last year], the Alabama and this one, so she proved that she likes it here and hopefully we get another one down the line here."

Fully Subscribed, trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, has now notched consecutive second-place finishes in Grade 1s after finishing one length back to Shred the Gnar in the La Troienne in May at Churchill Downs.

“She jumped very well, got herself in the race, and put herself right behind Nitrogen,” Prat said. “She made a good run. I wasn’t sure [if I finished second or third].”

Bless the Broken, trained by two-time Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, was a $950,000 purchase at the 2025 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale and finished third in the 2025 Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks for then trainer Will Walden. For new connections, she added two more top-level placings, a second in the Beholder Mile in March at Santa Anita Park and a third last out in the 1 1/16-mile La Troienne.

“Good trip. She broke very alertly and put me in a great spot,” Geroux said. “I applied a little bit of pressure on Nitrogen in the first turn, and she kept going along well. She fought back in the end and was very brave to get up for [a dead-heat] for second because Chad’s filly [Fully Subscribed] passed me down the lane. She is a fighter and made it close at the end, but the winner was much the best.” 

Live racing resumes Saturday, Belmont Stakes Day at Saratoga, with a stacked 14-race card encompassing six Grade 1s among seven graded events, highlighted by the 158th running of the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets in Race 13 at 7:04 p.m. Eastern.

The lucrative program includes the Grade 1, $1 million Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap [Race 11] - a "Win and You're In" for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile; the Grade 1, $1 million Resorts World Casino Manhattan [Race 12]; the Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game presented by Resolute Racing [Race 7]; the Grade 3, $400,000 True North [Race 8]; the Grade 1, $500,000 Jaipur [Race 9] – a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint; and the Grade 1 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun [Race 10]. First post is 11 a.m. with gates open to the public at 9 a.m.

America’s Day at the Races presents daily coverage and analysis of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.belmontstakes.com/event-info/tv-schedule. 

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