Nitrogen

It was billed as a match-up between 4-year-old reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) and Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro), the leading sophomore filly nipping at her heels, but Gin Gin (Hightail) didn't get the memo, going wire-to-wire and holding off Nitrogen's last-gasp effort to narrowly upset the GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland Sunday. The victory earned the Calumet Farm homebred an automatic berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. Let go at 18-1, Gin Gin was prompted by favored Thorpedo Anna through fractions of :23.74 and :46.69,...

by Jill Williams & J.N. Campbell A spectacular Fall Stars Weekend both continues and concludes Sunday at Keeneland, highlighted by the GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes, a 'Win and You're In' event for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 1. While entries may seem sparse for such an historic race with a $650,000 purse, they pack a punch with the reigning Horse of the Year, Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), making her first start in front of the home crowd since her open daylight debut over this surface at this meet two...

A slate of 65 offerings were catalogued for the Inglis Digital USA September Sale, led by a number of runners coming off of successful racetrack performances and the broodmare Earth Shaking (War Front), a half-sister to the dam of GISW Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro), the organization announced via press release. The aforementioned daughter of War Front will be offered not in-foal and ready for mating. All five of Earth Shaking's foals to make the races have gotten their picture taken. Another of the broodmare offerings is Jill's a Hot Mess (Laoban),...

Apprentice jockeys are not supposed to win stakes races, let alone a $1-million race that is among the most coveted prizes in Canadian racing. But that's exactly what 20-year-old Pietro Moran, who has been dubbed "The Baby-Faced Bandit," did last week, winning the King's Plate at Woodbine aboard the Kevin Attard-trained Mansetti (Collected). Moran, who is also the leading rider at Woodbine, has had quite the year. To discuss the King's Plate, his future, what it's like to ride against his father, David Moran, and other topics, Moran joined this...

Coming off an impressive victory in the GI Alabama S. at Saratoga, Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) will be tested against older horses in her next start. Co-owner Jon Green revealed Tuesday on his Rail Talk podcast that his star 3-year-old filly will go next in the GI Spinster on Oct. 5 at Keeneland. "There are a number of factors that played into our decision," Green told the TDN. "Number one, we wanted to give Nitrogen the proper amount of time. The Alabama took a lot out of her. The competition was...

Nothing ages us like old silk--certainly, at any rate, those of us who began on the Turf long before there was an internet. Finding footage today of the races that got us hooked will invariably restore from oblivion the colors of tycoons and aristocrats, once part of our daily lives, that have largely or even totally vanished since. Sic transit gloria mundi. (So passes the glory of the world...) Our memories, moreover, position us in place as well as time. In my own youth, for instance, black jacket and scarlet...

The victory by Silent Rule (Street Boss) in Thursday's first race at Thistledown barely registered on the national radar. But it was still a pretty impressive accomplishment: With a 2 3/4-length score against the boys in the $100,000 Honey Jay Stakes for Ohio-breds, the 4-year-old filly from trainer Jay Bernardini's barn is now 10-for-10 lifetime. Silent Rule, who sold for $16,000 as a Keeneland yearling, didn't start racing until Aug. 10 last year, in the second half of her 3-year-old season. But she has now bankrolled $355,456 in purse earnings,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As expected, the field for Saturday's 156th running of the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes will be a small one. That is because the best 3-year-old in the country, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) is running. Only four others will challenge Godolphin's Sovereignty, who is trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado. The last time only five horses were entered for the Travers was in 1994 when Holy Bull (Great Above) won. The smallest field in Travers history was two horses and that happened...

In the 145th running of the GI Alabama Stakes, it was Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) who took home the elite level glory at Saratoga. Entering the race, it was largely billed as a showdown between the 'big three' and it more or less went that way during the running. Nitrogen entered the historic contest fresh off a heartbreaker in the July 5 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational over the course next door where a nose denied her a first Grade I victory. Her tour de force two back June 7 in a...

Who's the current leader of the 3-year-old filly division? Featuring a rubber match between GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) and two-time GISW La Cara (Street Sense), we'll have our answer following a fantastic renewal of Saturday's GI Alabama S. at Saratoga. Good Cheer made it a perfect seven-for-seven for trainer Brad Cox with a powerful win on the first Friday in May, but never factored as the 1-4 favorite, finishing a lackluster fifth in the GI Acorn S. in the Saratoga slop June 6. The Godolphin homebred,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- She would have been the likely favorite in next Saturday's $500,000 GI Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. But that point is moot now. 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) won't run. Trainer Chad Brown delivered the news Thursday morning at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. "Unfortunately, she got sick," Brown said, sitting at his desk in his office. "She's sick, she's not running. Next question. There is nothing to talk about. She's going to miss the race." Brown was forced to...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - So far, trainer Joe Sharp has done little wrong at the Thoroughbred meet at Saratoga. If you've been following along, you know he has won six races with his first 15 starters. You might not know that he is also doing ok across the street at the harness track. Sharp has been moonlighting as a harness owner at night--along with former jockey Taylor Rice, the wife of jockey Jose Ortiz. They own a pair of pacers named Virgin Honor and Legal Bettor and they will both...