Raging Sea, Dazzling Moon Re-Engage in Friday's Shuvee

Five weeks ago, Miller Racing's Dazzling Move (Not This Time) and Alpha Delta's Raging Sea (Curlin), sent off at 12-1 and even-money respectively, met in a sloppy renewal of GI Ogden Phipps and it was the less fancied filly that finished best of the two, placing 4 3/4 lengths behind winner Dorth Vader (Girvin). Meanwhile, this season's GI La Troienne winner Raging Sea found herself 1 3/4 lengths behind the runner up that day, but has shown a definite affinity for the upstate New York oval, having won three of seven lifetime starts there while hitting the board in an additional two attempts. The pair return to Saratoga to face off in Friday's GII Shuvee Stakes.

“That was terrific,” trainer Chad Brown of the La Troienne effort. “She came off a layoff and ran super. She's in great form right now and training really well.”

Of her last out defeat, he explained, “Last time, on that wet track, it was speed favoring, and it didn't really set up for her. If there's some speed in the race and, hopefully, we catch a drier track, that would be great.”

Brown, who also won this event with Paid Up Subscriber (2017) and Royal Flag (2021), will also send out the lightly-raced Prides Crossing (Quality Road), who makes her stakes debut for owner OXO Equine.

Benefitting from the lack of pace in the Ogden Phipps, Dazzling Move won Gulfstream's 1 1/16-mile Royal Delta in her first start for Saffie Joseph Jr. before finishing fifth in the seven-panel GI Madison at Keeneland. The 4-year-old Ontario bred finished runner-up in the Allaire duPont Distaff going nine furlongs at Pimlico prior to her Ogden Phipps effort.

Elliot Campbell and Gary Capuano's Malibu Beauty (Buffum) enters the fray off a pair of recent victories, including the June 14 Obeah Stakes at Delaware.

“She's come back this year really running well. She's had two really good races,” said Capuano, who sends out his first Spa starter since Grundlefoot ran sixth in the 2002 Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap. “It looks like she's on top of her game and we thought we'd give it a shot and see if we can get some graded black type on her.”