Raging Sea rolls to the win in the Doubledogdare (Keeneland Photo)
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Keeneland Press Release
LEXINGTON, Ky.— Alpha Delta Stables’ Raging Sea roared past Hidden Connection at the top of the stretch and pulled away to a 3¼-length victory in the 29th running of the $300,000 Baird Doubledogdare (G3) for fillies and mares Friday afternoon.
Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Flavien Prat, Raging Sea completed the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in 1:44.24. It is the second victory in the race for Brown and Prat. Brown won in 2019 with Electric Forest, and Prat won last year with Frost Point.
Loved won the race to the first turn and set a pressured pace through fractions of :24.11 and :48.62 with Hidden Connection just off her flank and Raging Sea tracking the top two under a ground-saving trip.
The top two remained unchanged going into the final turn but Loved was beginning to weaken and allowed Hidden Connection to take over nearing the top of the stretch. Prat tipped Raging Sea to the outside of Hidden Connection turning for home and quickly spurted clear for her third consecutive victory.
Raging Sea is a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Curlin out of the Storm Cat mare Stormy Welcome. She was making her first start since winning the Comely (G3) at Aqueduct last November and improved her record to 8-4-1-1. The victory was worth $181,350 and improved her earnings to $645,978.
Raging Sea returned $7.58, $4.26 and $2.90. Hidden Connection, who was second in this race last year, returned $8.72 and $4.62 under Rey Gutierrez with favored Scylla finishing another 1½ lengths back in third and paying $2.34 to show under Javier Castellano.
It was another 1¼ lengths back to Loved, who was followed in order by Queen of Missoula, Saddle Up Jessie and Curl Girl.
Racing continues Saturday with a 10-race program beginning at 1 p.m. ET that features a stakes doubleheader. The eighth race at 4:44 p.m. is the $350,000 VisitLEX Elkhorn (G2) for grass marathoners going 1½ miles. That race is followed by the $300,000 Ben Ali (G3) for older horses going 1 3/16 miles on the main track at 5:16 p.m.
Quotes for the $300,000 Baird Doubledogdare (G3)
Chad Brown (winning trainer of Raging Sea), On what he expected of Raging Sea off the layoff: “She’s a bit of a lazy horse in the mornings, so I wasn’t quite sure we had her fit enough, but I’ll tell you, she’s a real afternoon horse. When we put the saddle on her, I felt a lot better. She was on her toes and ready to go. I want to thank the owner Jon Clay (of Alpha Delta Stables) for keeping her in training. Reynolds Bell, who’s here with us, (planned the mating of) this horse; he’s the bloodstock manager and manages the horses with Mr. Clay. They’re a great team. They decided to run her again another year, and based on how we got started, this will probably be her best year yet.”
On whether they will aim for a Grade 1 win: “That was our hope when we huddled up and tried to give her another season here, and she’s done super. She’s gotten so much bigger and stronger. She’s Grade 1-placed but if we could win that Grade 1 race with her, it would make her quite valuable and be pretty rewarding for Mr. Clay.”
Flavien Prat (winning rider), On whether the relatively slow pace helped set up the race for Raging Sea: “Absolutely. We had a good draw. She jumped well out of (the gate) and we were able to get a good stalking position. She was traveling well all the way around and got the job done. Great job by (trainer) Chad (Brown) to get her ready off the long (five-month) layoff.”
Rey Gutierrez (rider of runner-up Hidden Connection): “Great trip. I’m so proud of her, competing against some of the top fillies. She was really aggressive coming out of the gate, really forward down the backside, really comfortable. Once we switched leads about right after the half-mile, I thought we were gonna win. I’m really proud of her efforts. Hidden Connection is here, and she loves being in Kentucky.”
Javier Castellano (rider of third-place finisher Scylla): “I was a little inside. I don’t think it was the best place to be today. She ran a good race, but unfortunately it wasn’t her day today. I was stuck in traffic a little bit. I was behind horses, but she handled it well.”
