D.J. Stable’s Kentucky homebred Nitrogen drew away for an impressive 12 3/4-length score in the $500,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga.

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 a”Win and You’re In” berth to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) 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.

“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 Accomplished on Dirt and Turf

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,”

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, she then won the 10-furlong Grade 1 Alabama during her Eclipse Award-winning year in which she won six of nine starts with three second-place efforts.