LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Chad Brown had anxiously been awaiting a second chance to run Raging Sea against Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna ever since his filly finished second to the champ in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. That chance arrived Friday at Churchill Downs in the $1 million La Troienne, and Raging Sea made the most of the opportunity by avenging her lone setback in the last 11 months with a three-quarter-length victory in the Grade 1 fixture for older fillies and mares.
Taxed, at 31-1, rallied to finish second, a head in front of Raging Sea’s stablemate Randomized, in the mile and one-sixteenth La Troienne with Thorpedo Anna, the 1-5 favorite, finishing seventh and last after racing well placed into the stretch.
Raging Sea had a brilliant campaign in 2024, winning four of six starts, including the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. Her other defeat, aside from the BC Distaff, was a fourth-place finish behind Randomized in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps.
Brown believes that with a little pace help in the Breeders’ Cup, the final outcome might have been different.
“I felt in the Breeders’ Cup that Raging Sea was really compromised,” Brown recalled. “She was lined up for a big run that day but there were so many scratches in the race, there was really no pace. So I was really looking forward to a rematch here.”
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Raging Sea rated about a half-dozen lengths off the early leaders, avoiding trouble into the first turn that saw both Thorpedo Anna and Dorth Vader taking up inside the pacesetting Randomized. Raging Sea saved ground around the second bend, launched her bid between horses upon settling into the stretch, stuck her head in front of Randomized a sixteenth from the wire, then edged away from Taxed at the end.
Taxed, near the rear of the field for seven furlongs, finished willingly down the center of the track but could not match strides with the winner while never switching off her left lead in the stretch. Randomized set a reasonable pace before succumbing gradually through the final furlong, finishing a head further back in third.
Thorpedo Anna recovered after being checked and briefly jostled on the opening bend to stalk the early leader in the run down the backstretch. She remained well placed coming off the turn but came up empty despite being sharply roused by jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. for the stretch run.
“She got bounced around a little around the first turn but after that it all cleared up and we hopped outside of Randomized and we were having a nice smooth trip like we’d envisioned,” Hernandez said. “On the second turn, when I asked her to go after Randomized, she picked it up a little bit and then down the lane she was a little tired.
“Maybe coming back off that last race at Oaklawn [in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom) a little quick took the steam out of her. She got bumped a couple of times but that didn’t really impact her. It was one of those situations where today wasn’t her day.”
Raging Sea, who defeated the reigning 2023 Distaff champion Idiomatic last summer in the Personal Ensign, is a 5-year-old homebred daughter of Curlin owned by Alpha Delta Stables. Her victory in the La Troienne puts her career earnings above the $2 million mark. She completed the distance over a fast track in 1:42.91, paid $10.08, and earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.
“Nothing against the other filly [Thorpedo Anna] but I was really confident one of my two horses could win coming into the race. They both were training so well,” said Brown. “Randomized set reasonable fractions up front and coming off the final bend I actually thought she had the better chance. At that point I had a good feeling one of the two would win.
“It didn’t look like Thorpedo Anna was traveling as well as she normally does around that final turn.”
Trainer Kenny McPeek was a little disconcerted immediately after the race about the bumping that took place on the clubhouse turn.
“It looked like they beat her up there around the first turn, I’m not sure what that was about,” said McPeek.
He later added “she’s cooling out in the test barn. Nothing obvious at this time. Obviously we are disappointed. We will need to clean her up and go over her tomorrow morning to get some clarity.”
- additional reporting by Nicole Russo
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