Raased runs away with Oceanport romp

The $100,000 Oceanport Stakes turned into a splasher and a laugher. Rained off the turf, and run over a sloppy, sealed dirt track, the Oceanport fell to Raased in a romp, the 1-5 favorite taking command on the far turn and jogging o a 19 1/4-length victory.

Crown and Sugar finished second, Island Commish was third, and Ballagh Rocks took fourth in a race gutted by the rain-off, with five horses coming out of the original field.

Raased evidently loves Monmouth slop, having scored a 10 1/2-length first-level allowance victory earlier in the meet while racing over a sloppy surface. Raased ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.43 and paid $2.40 in winning his first stakes. Heriberto Figueroa rode for trainer Alison Escobar, who trains Raased for Candido Esquivel.

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Five-year-old Raased was bred by Shadwell Farm and has a big-time pedigree, by Tapit out of the Gone West mare, Emtyazat, but despite posting timed workouts in 2019 and 2020, Raased made the races only this past February. He won a maiden turf race at Tampa Bay Downs and most recently finished eighth in the Poker Stakes on the Belmont grass course, but Raased proved much too much for his three Sunday foes. It was a first Monmouth stakes win for Figueroa and for Escobar, who previously trained in Puerto Rico.