Pedigree Profile: Nitrogen

The D.J. Stable homebred is the fifth stakes winner on the Medaglia d'Oro/Uncle Mo cross

D.J. Stable’s homebred filly Nitrogen, already twice G1 placed in four starts - including a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, - broke through with a stakes victory in the Ginger Brew Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. Sent off as the favorite in a field of ten, the Mark Casse trainee settled mid-pack and kicked in with a late surge to emerge victorious by half a length under Jose Ortiz.

The stakes win was also Nitrogen’s maiden-breaking score, as she finished second by a neck on debut at Woodbine before contesting the G1 Natalma in her second start, where she led most of the way but ceded late to fellow Casse trainees And One More Time and Vixen. She made a late run after getting bumped out of the gate in the Breeders’ Cup, finishing third again behind Lake Victoria and May Day Ready.

Nitrogen is bred on what appears to be an emerging nick between Medaglia d’Oro and his sons and daughters of Uncle Mo. She is by Medaglia d’Oro himself, a member of his 17th crop of racing age, and out of D.J. Stable’s stakes-placed Uncle Mo mare Tiffany Case, who is already the dam of stakes winner Love To Shop by Medaglia d’Oro’s son Violence.

In addition to the two stakes-winning daughters of Tiffany Case, G1 winner and possible Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, multiple graded stakes winner Instant Coffee, and stakes winner Chase the Chaos are also products of this cross. The fact that there are four unique sons of Medaglia d’Oro - Fast Anna, Bolt d’Oro, Astern, and Violence - with stakes winners out of Uncle Mo mares, in addition to Medaglia d’Oro himself now with Nitrogen, is of particular note. Overall, five of the 23 starters on the Medaglia d’Oro/Uncle Mo cross are stakes winners (21.7%), and there are four additional stakes placed runners, for a remarkable 39.1% black type horses.

While the sample size is still modest, I expect this is a nick that will continue to see plenty of success moving forward - the first three stakes winners on the cross were foals of 2020, so we’re just in the beginning stages of the nick rising to popularity. While the percentage of stakes winners is almost certain to fall from its current lofty heights, as more people attempt to replicate the likes of horses such as Thorpedo Anna, there are also almost certain to be more success stories.

Expanding the cross to Medaglia d’Oro over all sources of Indian Charlie adds only one additional stakes winner in 53 total starters (11.3%) - Medaglia d’Oro is the sire of graded stakes winner Cafe Americano out of an Indian Charlie mare. This is still a very respectable cross, but it would seem as though Uncle Mo himself is the source of the magic here.

A prolific nick is not all Nitrogen has going for her pedigree, either. Her dam is a half-sister to the graded stakes winner Talk Veuve to Me (by the Medaglia d’Oro son Violence), and she traces to the Queen of Light branch of family 1s that is responsible for 119 stakes winners worldwide, including 26 G1 winners. Of perhaps most notoriety in the United States is Cape Blanco, a 5-time G1 winner who took the Irish Derby and Irish Champion Stakes as a three-year-old before finding more G1 success in the U.S. with wins in the Arlington Million, Man O War, and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic as a four-year-old.

Nitrogen is surely not the last stakes winner we’ve seen on this rising Medaglia d’Oro/Uncle Mo nick, and I expect the Ginger Brew Stakes is not the last time we’ll see her claiming a stakes victory for her connections, either.