Nitrogen sharp in Saratoga work, set for Whitney challenge

Nitrogen kept her Whitney Stakes bid on track with a half-mile in 47.84 seconds at Saratoga, the kind of crisp move that fits a filly coming off a 12 3/4-length rout in the Ogden Phipps Stakes and now set for the Aug. 8 Grade 1 against males. Mark Casse has already treated the Whitney as more than a bold placement, and the latest work only hardened that view: Nitrogen looked ready for a race that could lift her beyond filly company and into the Horse of the Year conversation.

The bigger wrinkle is in the saddle. DJ Stable general manager Jon Green announced June 24 that Nitrogen would run in the Whitney instead of returning to turf, and Casse expects Jose Ortiz to remain with Magnitude, which leaves Nitrogen likely in the market for a new rider. That matters in a race as demanding as the Whitney, where pace, positioning and rider familiarity can shape the outcome as much as raw talent. It also raises the stakes of a filly trying to do something rare, since only five fillies have won the Whitney since 1928 and none have done it in the last 40 years.

Counting Stars delivered the other major signal on Casse’s Saratoga work tab. The Acorn Stakes winner went five furlongs in 1:00.31 and kept moving with strong gallop-out splits of 1:12.84 and 1:26.99, a useful marker for a filly being aimed at the July 25 Coaching Club American Oaks. She won the Acorn by 3 3/4 lengths on June 5, covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.85 and earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, then followed that with a third-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks five weeks earlier. West Point Thoroughbreds’ Terry Finley was on hand around the work, reinforcing that the barn sees the filly as a serious summer player, not just a one-race headline.

Casse’s other Saratoga breezers filled in the rest of the map. Silent Tactic worked five furlongs in 1:00.65 after being scratched from the Kentucky Derby because of a bruised left front foot, and he remains pointed toward the Aug. 1 Jim Dandy with the Aug. 9 West Virginia Derby also possible. Before the scratch, the John Oxley-owned son of Tacitus had gone 2-for-6, finished second in the Smarty Jones, won the Southwest and placed in the Rebel and Arkansas Derby. Ewing, a Grade 2 winner who captured the 2025 Saratoga Special, also stayed in the frame after a first breeze over the Oklahoma turf course in 47.38, with the July 19 Quick Call on turf for 3-year-olds emerging as a live target.