Malibu winner Raging Torrent has Middle East target in 2025

The Grade 2 Godolphin Mile on April 5 on the Dubai World Cup undercard is the major target for Thursday’s Grade 1 Malibu Stakes winner Raging Torrent. Whether he starts between now and then remains to be determined.

“I’ll talk with (co-owner) Mark Davis, and we’ll put our heads together, but the goal is the Godolphin Mile,” trainer Doug O’Neill said Friday morning. “If something comes up in early February around one turn we like, we could go there first.”

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The next graded stakes for older horses sprinting on dirt at Santa Anita is the six-furlong Palos Verdes (G3) on Feb. 15.

Entering the winter-spring meet, O’Neill ranked third all-time in wins at Santa Anita with 1,198 and was tied for eighth in stakes victories with 118. He also has won the trainer’s title nine times.

Despite that abundance of success over three-plus decades, the Malibu eluded the 56-year-old conditioner. That all changed Thursday when Raging Torrent prevailed in the 77th edition of the seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds.

Raging Torrent won on opening two races after J B Strikes Back, also trained by O’Neill, took down the Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes (G2). In the Malibu, Raging Torrent kicked clear and won by 1 1/4 lengths under Frankie Dettori, who also got his first Malibu victory.

“It was such a special day, and the Malibu is such a special race,” O’Neill said Friday morning. “When you see the Kentucky Derby winner (Mystik Dan) come out for it, it just shows you how important the race is. It’s really an honor.”

O’Neill reported both Raging Torrent, who earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily Racing Form, and J B Strikes Back were doing well Friday morning.

Raging Torrent earned his second graded win in the Malibu. This summer at Del Mar he won the Pat O’Brien (G2), also going seven furlongs, before a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The son of Maximus Mischief is 12: 5-1-2 with $667,400 in earnings for Davis and Great Friends Stables.

J B Strikes Back, owned by Janie Buss’s Purple Rein Racing, earned his first-stakes win when upsetting the Pincay at 16-1 under Antonio Fresu. The 3-year-old gelding by Goldencents was claimed twice this year. He was picked up from O’Neill and Purple Rein out of a $20,000 maiden-claiming win on July 21. In his next start on Aug. 3 at Del Mar, O’Neill and Purple Rein reclaimed the gelding for $25,000.

The Pincay was J B Strikes Back’s third win in a row since rejoining the O’Neill barn.

“It’s amazing his improvement this year,” O’Neill said. “He’s just a gutty, hard-trying horse. He’s been a real pleasant surprise.”

O’Neill said his major goal now is the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) on March 1.

“He could run again before that, or we’ll train him up,” O’Neill said. “We’re in no hurry.”