Raging Sea swoops home to take Doubledogdare

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Raging Sea returned from a winter break right where she left off, swooping to a 3 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $300,000 Doubledogdare Stakes on Friday at Keeneland.

Raging Sea ($7.58), an Alpha Delta Stables homebred trained by Chad Brown, won her third straight race dating to last October, but was making her first start since taking the Grade 3 Comely Stakes on Nov. 25 at Aqueduct. She has been back on the work tab with a steady series of breezes since mid-February; but still, Brown wasn't quite sure what he had coming 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," Brown said. "When we put the saddle on her, I felt a lot better. She was on her toes and ready to go."

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Raging Sea and Flavien Prat, who broke from the rail in the field of seven fillies and mares, worked out a comfortable trip tracking in fourth in about the two path around the first turn and down the backstretch. Up front, Loved was turning in relatively moderate fractions of 24.11 seconds for the opening quarter and 48.62 seconds for the half, but was under pressure throughout, with graded stakes winner Hidden Connection pressing on her hip.

Around the far turn, Hidden Connection came to even terms with Loved, then poked a head in front, but a length and a half behind them, Raging Sea was swinging into the clear for the drive. When straightened away and set down by Prat, she easily overtook to Hidden Connection, and cleared away in the end to her final margin.

The final time for the 1 1/16 miles, on a track rated fast despite overnight and early-morning rain was, 1:44.24.

Hidden Connection was second in the Doubledogdare for the second straight year, finishing 1 1/2 lengths ahead of favored Scylla in third. They were followed, in order, by Loved, Queen of Missoula, Saddle Up Jessie, and Curl Girl.

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