After overcoming a significant bout with pneumonia last fall, it seemed improbable that the well-regarded Always a Runner would make it onto the Kentucky Oaks trail, let alone tally a perfect 3-for-3 ledger that was capped with a win in the prestigious route for sophomore fillies on the first Friday in May. Now, she looks to further her success in Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 DraftKings Acorn for sophomore fillies traveling nine-furlongs at Saratoga Race Course.
“She looks good, and there’s no reason not to just carry right on with her,” said her five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown. “She’s lightly-raced and she bounced out of the Oaks good.”
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The Acorn, which will feature a rematch of the top-three finishers from the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, is slated as Race 10 on Friday’s card for Day Three of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. The 14-race program also features the Grade 1, $750,000 New York in Race 11, the Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford in Race 12, the Grade 2, $300,000 Bed o’ Roses presented by Boldyn Networks in Race 4 and the Grade 2, $300,000 Wonder Again presented by Shift4 in Race 9. First post is 11:45 a.m. Eastern, with gates opening to the public at 10 a.m.
Campaigned by breeder Three Chimneys Farm with Douglas Scharbauer, the dark bay daughter of Gun Runner sold for $1.05 million at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and quickly stamped herself as a top prospect in the incoming class of juveniles to the Brown barn last year.
However, uncertainty clouded her future in the fall when she came down with pneumonia. Despite the severity of her illness, the filly showed determination to overcome the infection, and displayed that same heart on the racetrack to warrant a February debut at Tampa Bay Downs, where she stalked and pounced to a dominant 6 1/2-length victory.
In April, Brown decided to roll the dice and place her on the Oaks trail in the Grade 3 Gazelle at Aqueduct Racetrack. The pacesetting Pashmina looked like a winner heading into the lane as she had a 2 1/2-length lead at the stretch call with Always a Runner a clear second. Under a strong ride from Dylan Davis, Always a Runner showed an impressive turn-of-foot in the final sixteenth to sweep by Pashmina and win by 1 1/4 lengths.
The improbable had happened, and Always a Runner not only punched her ticket to the Oaks, but emerged from post 7-of-13 there as the close second choice under Jose Ortiz. Patiently handled in the first stages, Always a Runner raced in mid-pack approaching the first turn, and settled in behind splits of 23.08 seconds and 46.85 set by Explora while racing in the two-path in eighth down the backstretch. Ortiz roused his charge in the far turn and an opening appeared in front of her as her more forward rivals commenced their bids, allowing Ortiz to angle her around to the four and five-path straightening for home.
Always a Runner hit the clear through three-quarters in 1:10.78 and set her sights on the tiring Explora and the pursuing Meaning, gaining ground with every stride to come to even terms with her rivals passing the eighth pole and drawing off an emphatic 1 1/4-length victory over Meaning in a final time of 1:48.82. The win was the first in the Oaks for Brown and the second for Ortiz, who went on to complete the Oaks/Kentucky Derby double the next day aboard expected Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets contender Golden Tempo.
“A great trip and a great ride. I think Jose did a fabulous job, especially in the first half of the race by holding his position between horses in traffic,” Brown said. “He never lost position, and I think that was really key. He kept her there and he kept her position to just move forward, and they got along really well. This is going to be a much different race in a short field, so we’ll have to see how it all works out. There’s really good horses in the race, just not many [runners].”
G1 French Oaks foes take on Brown quartet in G1 New York
Annually one of the top races in the nation for the filly and mare turf division, Friday’s Grade 1, $750,000 New York features a a rematch of the winner and third-place finishers from last year’s Group 1 Prix de Diane [French Oaks], Peter M. Brant’s Gezora and The Aga Khan’s Cankoura. Quality is the name of the game in this year’s renewal with nine going to post in the 1 3/16-mile Mellon turf test on Day Three of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.
Former stablemates in the Chantilly yard of Francis-Henri Graffard in France, Gezora and Cankoura have since diverged, with the former finishing second in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and 13th against the boys in the prestigious Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe – both at Longchamp – and then winning Del Mar’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November for Graffard.
On a one-way ticket when venturing stateside, the daughter of European Champion 3-year-old of 2016, Almanzor, joined the Chad Brown barn for one race, a seasonal debut second in Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Modesty over nine furlongs. Recently moved to the barn of Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott after the surprising loss, she is expected to be well-fancied once again, especially with the additional half-furlong in distance, as well as having a fitness-building race under her girth.
Hall of Famer John Velazquez, a New York winner with She Feels Pretty [2025], Lady Shakespeare [2010], Auntie Mame [1998] and Irish Linnet [1995] seeks a record-setting fifth victory from the outermost post 9. Speaking of records, Brant will seek a record-setting fourth victory in the race, having won with Bleecker Street [2022], Homerique [2019] and Just a Game [1980].
Cankoura, a four-time winner from nine starts, suffered from a lack of cover when finishing a valiant third in the French Oaks. She would go on to impressively win Deauville’s Group 3 Prix de Psyche before disappointing with failed front-running tactics in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet. Rested for the remainder of 2025, the daughter of triple Group 1-winning miler Persian King returned with a fitness-fortifying fourth – missing the silver by a couple strides – as the joint-favorite in left-handed Saint-Cloud’s Group 3 Prix Allez France on May 1. One year on from her last meeting with Gezora, she gets another crack at her foe, with each appearing likely to improve off their 2026 bows. Clement Lecoeuvre flies in for the mount with Cankoura to break from post 6.
Nitrogen returns to Saratoga for G1 Ogden Phipps
D.J. Stable’s Kentucky homebred Nitrogen, the reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, returns to the site of her Grade 1 Alabama score in Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford, a nine-furlong test for older fillies and mares, during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.
The Ogden Phipps offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff in October at Keeneland. Nitrogen was a 5 1/2-length second to the pacesetting Scylla in that World Championships event to cap her past campaign in November at Del Mar.
Trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, the 4-year-old Medaglia d’Oro bay captured the 10-furlong Grade 1 Alabama presented by Keeneland Sales in August here during her Eclipse Award-winning, 9-6-3-0 sophomore campaign that earned $1.9 million. Nitrogen has never missed the board during her 15-7-5-3 career that has banked in excess of $2.4 million.
The top-class filly made her three starts this year going 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park, winning the Grade 3 Bayakoa with a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure in February, ahead of a third in the Grade 2 Azeri and a second in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap the next two months. In the latter, Nitrogen matched her 97 Beyer, but landed 4 1/2 lengths behind the masterful Claret Beret, who sadly succumbed to a suspected cardiac event following a work on May 22.
“Her first effort back was great, but I thought her second run back was a little bit lackluster. Last time, she was really good,” Casse said. “It’s very unfortunate that the filly that beat her passed away. I thought that was going to be the start of a really good rivalry.”
Nitrogen made her first seven starts on turf until the Grade 3 Wonder Again was moved to the main track during the last Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, where she proceeded to dominate the three-horse field by 17 lengths. She returned to grass next out here, suffering a nose defeat to track-record setting Fionn in the nine-furlong Mellon turf Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, and has competed on dirt since.
“She likes Saratoga, and the added distance doesn’t hurt,” Casse said. “Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but right now we’re committed to the dirt.”
Nitrogen [post 5, Jose Ortiz] worked a bullet half-mile in 47.80 seconds on May 14 over the Keeneland main track and returned 10 days later over the same surface to breeze a bullet five-eighths in 59.60 – the spacing between those efforts related to wet weather.
“She’s training really well,” Casse said.
