Raging Sea using Beldame as tune-up for BC Distaff

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Much in the manner Ways and Means was a heavy favorite in last Sunday’s Grade 2 Gallant Bloom for female sprinters, Raging Sea looms an exceptionally short-priced favorite in this Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame Stakes for female routers at Aqueduct.

Ways and Means delivered last Sunday at 2-5 and got a useful prep for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 2. Raging Sea, by virtue of her Grade 1 Personal Ensign victory, already has a spot in the $2 million Distaff secured and trainer Chad Brown is using the Beldame as a final tune-up for that race.

In the Personal Ensign, Raging Sea was able to reel in an ultra-game Idiomatic – last year’s BC Distaff winner and older female dirt champion – to win by a head. With Idiomatic running in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland, Brown opted for this path of least resistance for Raging Sea.

“If I have an eye on the Breeders’ Cup, which I do with her, I don’t want to have a hard race again right before the Breeders’ Cup,” Brown said.

Brown said Raging Sea reminds him of Royal Flag, a mare who in 2021 finished third behind champion Letruska in the Personal Ensign, won the Grade 2 Beldame, then finished fifth in the Distaff, beaten only 1 1/4 lengths while having to make a premature move. Raging Sea, a 4-year-old daughter of Curlin, did finish third in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

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“I really respect this horse. She’s continued to slowly improve over time,” Brown said. “With her pedigree you’d hope that, but they don’t always do it. For her to be competitive at the highest level at 2 and now you look at her and she’s still mixing it up with the top of the older division says a lot.”

Raging Sea, who breaks from post 4 under Flavien Prat, will likely have a pace-helper in Signal From Noise. This 5-year-old mare has been stuck in the second-level allowance condition for 20 months. Brown notes, however, that her best races have come at Aqueduct.

“She has as good a chance as any of them to hit the board in this race, mostly based on her experience and success at Aqueduct,” Brown said. “I know her form is off and it’s not like me to do that, but she’s not in there just to set the pace, she’s in there to get a significant piece of it.”

Dylan Davis rides Signal From Noise from the rail.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. is hoping to get a stakes-placing with Libban and Batucada, who finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the Ontario Matron on Sept. 14. Joseph is adding blinkers to Libban’s equipment.

“We’re just trying something,” Joseph said. “She’s a filly we think has a lot of ability, just has never shown it. She won a stakes, run some decent races, went to the grass and we think some of her dirt races are not as bad as they look on paper.”

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Batucada owns a stakes win on synthetic and is 4 for 7 on fast dirt.

Mid-Atlantic-based runners Frosty O Toole and Majestic Creed complete the field.

The Beldame goes as race 2 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:40 p.m.

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