20-07-2025
Malibu, Met Mile Winner Raging Torrent Retired
Malibu, Met Mile Winner Raging Torrent Retired originally appeared on Paulick Report.
Raging Torrent two-time Grade 1 winner of the Malibu Stakes and Metropolitan Mile Handicap along with this year's Grade 2 Godolphin Mile, has been retired because of a suspensory injury to his left foreleg. Craig Dado, managing partner of Great Friends Stable, which co-owns the 4-year-old son of Maximus Mischief with Yuesheng Zhang's Yulong Investments, confirmed the news on Mike Willman's Thoroughbred Los Angeles radio show after it was first reported by Daily Racing Form Saturday night.
Dado told Willman that stud plans have not been finalized, but that 'we're pretty far down the line with Lane's End right now. A couple more things need to be worked out, but would speculate that's where he'll be.'
After being freshened following his victory over dual Grade 1 winner Fierceness in the Met Mile at Saratoga on June 7, Raging Torrent was set to begin serious preparation to defend his title in the Grade 2 Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar. O'Neill said some swelling was detected and diagnostics indicated damage to the suspensory ligament.
'We were so bummed,' O'Neill told the Paulick Report. 'He was a brilliant, brilliant horse who had sprinter speed but the heart and competitiveness and stamina of a route horse.'
Placed in graded stakes at 2, Raging Torrent won seven of 14 starts, with $1,797,400 earnings. He won six of his final seven starts, including two Grade 1 events that have proven to be stallion-making races, the Malibu at Santa Anita and the Met Mile, run the last two years at Saratoga while Belmont Park is being rebuilt.
From the initial crop of the Into Mischief stallion Maximus Mischief – second to Mitole in the 2023 first-crop sire list – Raging Torrent was bred in Kentucky by Rodney J. Winkler and Alfonso Mazzetti. Produced from the Violence mare, Violent Wave, the colt raced initially for Mark Davis, who purchased him for $75,000 at the 2023 OBS Spring Sale of 2-year-olds in training, with Great Friends taking a minority interest in the horse. Davis sold his share to Zhang following Raging Torrent's Malibu victory Dec. 26.
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
