Raging Sea sails into G1 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford

Alpha Delta Stables’ Kentucky homebred Raging Sea has developed a reputation as a giant slayer but now may be the one to beat in Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford, a nine-furlong test for older fillies and mares, during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course. 

The Ogden Phipps offers a "Win and You're In" berth to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff in November at Del Mar. 

Trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, the 5-year-old Curlin chestnut enters from a closing three-quarter-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 La Troienne last out on May 2 at Churchill Downs. She successfully returned from a six-month layoff, besting a field that included reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna and the Brown-trained dual Grade 1-winner Randomized, who also contests the Ogden Phipps.  

After a fourth in the past running of the Phipps, Raging Sea [post 4, Flavien Prat] won three consecutive nine-furlong graded events, highlighted by a closing score over 2023-24 Champion Older Dirt Mare Idiomatic in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign over course and distance in August. 

“Raging Sea has really proven that she is consistent year to year. She’s really at her best right now,” said Brown. 

Raging Sea’s past campaign was capped with a second in last year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff to eventual Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna. Re-opposing stablemate Randomized was second in that event in 2023 to Idiomatic. 

Klaravich Stables’ Randomized [post 7, Joel Rosario] finished third last out in the aforementioned La Troienne, missing place honors by a head to Taxed. The speedy 5-year-old Nyquist bay set the pace and battled on, but was edged late by Raging Sea and Taxed. 

“I feel like she should move forward off of her first race of the year,” said Brown. “That tends to be how she is. Year to year, that first race has seemed to benefit her. In the past, she’s acted like she needed that one race to get going."

Randomized, when making her second start off the layoff, was a pacesetting winner of last year’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford, holding off the oncoming favorite Idiomatic by a head with strong determination in the lane under returning Hall of Fame rider Joel Rosario. 

Randomized utilized similar frontrunning tactics when capturing the local 2023 Grade 1 Alabama presented by Keeneland Sales and the restricted Wilton here. Her last start without a clear lead after the opening quarter-mile was in last year’s Personal Ensign, where she finished fourth behind Raging Sea, Idiomatic, and subsequent Champion Female Sprinter Soul of an Angel. 

Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher sends a pair of Grade 1 winners in Leslie’s Rose [post 3, Irad Ortiz, Jr.] and Candied [post 5, Manny Franco] as he seeks a fourth victory in this event, following past scores with Ashado [2005], Life At Ten and Awesome Maria [2010-11].

Whisper Hill Farm’s Leslie’s Rose was a last-out neck third when making her seasonal debut in 6 1/2-furlong Grade 3 Vagrancy on May 4 at Belmont at the Big A. The 4-year-old Into Mischief bay was bumped at the break, traveling third throughout, and could only make up mild ground on the Saffie Joseph, Jr.-trained pair of Haulin Ice and R Disaster. 

“She’s training great and got a good race under her belt,” said Pletcher. “Hopefully stretching her back out will have her at her best. She is strong.” 

Among Leslie’s Rose 8-3-1-2 record is a win last year in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland and a second to Thorpedo Anna in the nine-furlong Grade 1 DK Horse Acorn during the past Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at the Spa. 

Leslie’s Rose, a $1.15 million Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, is out of the Galileo mare Wildwood Rose – a half-sister to Grade 1-winner Materiality and Grade 2-winner My Miss Sophia.

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Bobby Flay’s Candied brings strong recent form with a last-out three-length score in the nine-furlong Listed Allaire DuPont Distaff on May 16 at Pimlico Race Course. There, the 4-year-old Candy Ride bay closed from six lengths back in 4th-of-6 to cruise by the pacesetting returning rival Dazzling Move. 

“Her last race was good, and it was nice to see her win again,” Pletcher said. “She seemed to bounce out of it really well, so we’ll come back after three weeks.” 

Candied captured the 2023 Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, topping a consistent 11-4-2-4 career with over $1.2 million in total earnings. She earned Grade 1 seconds as a sophomore in the local Alabama and Coaching Club American Oaks, among six career top-level on-the-board finishes.  

Miller Racing’s Grade 3-winner Dazzling Move [post 2, Jose Ortiz], in her last-out second with blinkers off in the Listed Allaire DuPont Distaff, was making just her third start for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. 

For Joseph, Jr., the 4-year-old Not This Time dark bay was fifth in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Madison in April at Keeneland after capturing the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 Royal Delta in her February barn debut at Gulfstream Park – neither effort was on the lead. 

“Her biggest thing is she needs to relax – she gets over-keen and if she can relax better, it helps her,” said Joseph, Jr. “First time out going two turns for us, she won, and then she ran one-turn again and didn’t run well. Last time, she ran decently behind Candied, so we’re just trying to see if we can pick up a Grade 1 placing.”

Dazzling Move made her first 14 starts for conditioner Michael Trombetta, featuring a second to Nic’s Style in the seven-furlong Listed Pumpkin Pie in November at Belmont at the Big A.  

Godolphin’s Kentucky homebred Tarifa [post 6, Luis Saez] looks to get back in the win column for dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox after three graded stakes placings. She was third in her seasonal debut in the one-mile Grade 1 Beholder Mile in March at Santa Anita Park ahead of a second in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare last out on April 18 at Keeneland.

“She ran a nice first start out in California and we were pleased with the run,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock. “She’s come out of the Doubledogdare in very good shape and has put in a couple of really nice works. We had the option to run in the Shawnee at Churchill or try the big dogs in the Ogden Phipps. We said let’s swing for the fences and try our luck in a Grade 1 again.”

The 4-year-old Bernardini dark bay is on the brink of millionaire status with $985,100 in earnings, thanks in part due to a trio of Grade 2 scores as a sophomore, most recently in the nine-furlong Mother Goose in October at Belmont at the Big A. She made the Kentucky Oaks starting gate last year with wins in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra and Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, both at Fair Grounds Race Course. 

“I think she fits in here,” said Banahan. “We brought her to the Oaks and she didn’t hit the target there, but she’s still a nice filly and she placed behind Thorpedo Anna in the [Grade 1] Cotillion as well. She’s not too far away from the better fillies last year, and I don’t think she’s too far away from them as a 4-year-old either.”

Rounding out the field is Grade 1-placed Dorth Vader [post 1, John Velazquez] for trainer George Weaver. The 5-year-old Girvin dark bay, the head runner-up of the 2023 Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont Park, enters from a fourth in the La Troienne after breaking from the inside post and exchanging bumps with Thorpedo Anna into the first turn as the Rosario-piloted Randomized cleared the field. 

“She’s doing well,” said Weaver. “She was running the whole way and it was tight in the first turn. She was on the rail and Joel Rosario came over on her and stopped her. We’d like a clean trip.”

Dorth Vader, who holds a 14-4-2-1 record with $618,218 in earnings, is a Grade 2-winning Florida homebred for John Ropes. 

The Ogden Phipps is slated as Race 9 on Friday’s 14-race program, which includes the Grade 1 DK Horse Acorn [Race 11], Grade 1 New York pres. by Rivers Casino [Race 12], Grade 1 Just a Game pres. by Resolute Racing [Race 13], Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses [Race 6], and the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup [Race 10]. First post is 11:40 a.m. Eastern with admission gates open to the public at 10 a.m.

America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.belmontstakes.com/event-info/tv-schedule. 

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