Raging Sea is impressive in winning Doubledogdare

Alpha Delta Stables’ Raging Sea roared past Hidden Connection at the top of the stretch and pulled away to a 3 1/4-length victory in the 29th running of the Grade 3, $300,000 Doubledogdare Stakes for fillies and mares on Friday at Keeneland.

Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Flavien Prat, Raging Sea completed the 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in 1:44.24. It was the second victory in the race for Brown and Prat. Brown won in 2019 with Electric Forest, and Prat won last year with Frost Point.

Loved won the race to the first turn and set a pressured pace through fractions of 24.11 and 48.62 seconds with Hidden Connection just off her flank and Raging Sea tracking the top two under a ground-saving trip.

Raging Sea is a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Curlin out of the Storm Cat mare Stormy Welcome. She was making her first start since winning the Comely (G3) at Aqueduct in November and improved her record to 8: 4-1-1. The victory was worth $181,350 and improved her earnings to $645,978.

Raging Sea returned $7.58, $4.26 and $2.90. Hidden Connection, who was second in this race last year, returned $8.72 and $4.62 under Rey Gutierrez. Post-time favorite Scylla finished another 1 1/2 lengths back in third and paid $2.34 to show under Javier Castellano.

It was another 1 1/4 lengths back to Loved, who was followed in order by Queen of Missoula, Saddle Up Jessie and Curl Girl.