A Raving Beauty Invades Winners’ Circle in G3 Beaugay

ELMONT, NY – German-bred A Raving Beauty made her stateside debut in style on Saturday, kicking away in the stretch with tremendous gusto to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park.

Bobbling slightly out of post 6 under Irad Ortiz, Jr., A Raving Beauty was tucked inside and tracked closely behind early leader Team of Teams through opening splits of :25.62, :49.87, and 1:12.97. Hitting the front stretch, A Raving Beauty tipped out from the rail and shot forward, collaring Team of Teams before bursting away down the stretch. The Chad Brown trainee hit the wire first by a gaining 3 lengths in a final time of 1:41.64 for the 8 1/2-furlong event over the inner turf.

“She broke a lot better than I thought she would,” said Brown. “She’s been training extremely well and was a lot more forwardly-placed than I anticipated. I thought Irad did a really good job to cover up. He had a choice there at the first 1/8 (mile) to maybe put her outside the other speed horse to see if he could settle her that way or cover up, but I think if he chose to put her outside, she might have run off, so I think he really won the race by choosing to cover up, and then she did settle down.”

The favored Inflexibility found herself running five-wide heading for home and wasn’t quick enough to catch her runaway stablemate. In the shadow of the wire, she was able to get up in time to neck out second over Lido. Team of Teams faded to fourth, crossing a length ahead of Tricky Escape, while My Impression and Broken Bridle completed the order of finish.

A Raving Beauty’s victory was her first since tasting victory at Hoppegarten in her native country last August. Owners Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, and Bethlehem Stables brought her to Brown’s stable in America after purchasing her at auction for $264,915 last December. The 5-year-old daughter of Mastercraftsman improved her career record to 18-4-3-2 with career earnings of $319,555.

A Raving Beauty returned $7.70 to win, $3.70 to place, and $3 to show. Inflexibility brought back $2.80 to place and $2.50 to show, while Lido paid $4.30 to show.