This is the sort of decision that looks neat and tidy from the outside and turns into a proper headache the moment the race gets serious. Jose Ortiz is not short of options for the GI, $1-million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Springs, but that does not make the choice any easier. It only makes it bigger.
On Friday morning at Saratoga, Steve Rushing made clear that the Whitney mount was still up in the air between Magnitude and Nitrogen. That is no small call. Magnitude is the 9-5 morning-line favorite and has won all three of his starts this year, including two Grade I races. Nitrogen, meanwhile, has also done plenty to earn attention, and her recent form has made the decision genuinely awkward.
Earlier in the meet, Ortiz was brutally straightforward about how this works. “Steve makes the decision,” he said, adding that their agreement is a 25 percent arrangement. “I pay him 25 percent. That's his job. He doesn't tell me how to ride; I don't tell him how to be an agent.” In other words, the jockey is happy to let the agent handle the politics. The problem is that politics is exactly what this has become.
Why the Whitney call matters
Steve Rushing called it “absolutely, one of the toughest decisions we had to make,” and that sounds about right. Magnitude and Nitrogen are not disposable options. They are both serious players, and both arrive with major credentials. Magnitude has already shown he can handle elite company. Nitrogen has done enough to make a stakes ride look far more complicated than it should.
Rushing said, “Originally, we thought the filly was going to run against fillies,” which only adds to the intrigue. Nitrogen’s path changed, and once that happened, the entire equation shifted with it. “Really, a tough decision. All the races that Nitrogen has won and, obviously, Magnitude has won those major races,” he said. That is the heart of it. One horse brings perfection this year. The other brings the kind of class that makes you stop and think twice.
Magnitude, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, has the cleaner recent profile. Three starts, three wins, two Grade I victories. That is a résumé that usually leaves little room for argument. But Nitrogen, trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, comes in after a 12 3/4-length romp in the GI Ogden Phipps on June 5, and that is the sort of performance that refuses to be ignored.
So the Whitney has already produced its first real drama, and it has nothing to do with the break or the pace or the finish line. It is about who gets the mount in the first place. That is not a minor subplot. In a race this big, at a meet this important, every decision matters. And this one could shape how the entire Whitney is run.
