Under a front-running ride from Frankie Dettori, Raging Torrent defeated older division heavyweights Fierceness and White Abarrio to win the Grade 1 $970,000 Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan Handicap June 7 at Saratoga Race Course. The race known as the Met Mile was a highlight of the undercard at Saratoga in advance of the 157^th Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets as part of the Belmont Racing Festival.

Trained by Doug O'Neill, Raging Torrent delivered his third consecutive black-type win for owners Yuesheng Zhang of Yulong Investments and Craig Dado's Great Friends Stable. The 4-year-old son of third-crop sire Maximus Mischief was exiting a victory in Meydan Racecourse's Godolphin Mile in April in Dubai, which followed a victory in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Del Mar late last year. All three of his most recent wins have come with Dettori aboard.

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Though those victories were significant, the caliber of the opposition was not on the same level as what he faced in the Metropolitan Handicap, a race more commonly referred to as the Met Mile. Fierceness and White Abarrio are two of the leaders in the older dirt male division and early candidates in pursuit of Horse of the Year, the most coveted award in North American racing. Neither could keep up with Raging Torrent over a sealed, muddy surface.

Raging Torrent outbroke his four rivals for the early lead and set a relatively easy opening quarter-mile pace going :23.92 out of the half-turn Wilson Chute at Saratoga. Pressure picked up thereafter, with Fierceness pressuring him into splits of :46.86 and 1:10.36, but Raging Torrent proved strongest late. He shrugged off Fierceness in mid-stretch and drew away to clock a mile in 1:35.89. He paid $18 to win.

"[Winning the Met Mile] is something that I never dreamt of just because it seems so far-fetched, but a horse like Raging Torrent is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime kind of horse," O'Neill said. "He's got speed. He's got stamina. He's got class, he has no problem shipping, and it's just a wonderful feeling."

Heavily favored Fierceness, who headed Raging Torrent briefly turning for home under John Velazquez, settled for second 2 1/2 lengths back while Just a Touch completed the trifecta. White Abarrio was fourth of five runners in the field.

"The horse is maturing. Doug [O'Neill] has realized to space his races out and [Raging Torrent] has this amazing will to win. He puts his head down, even when Johnny pressured me, he fought really hard," Dettori said.

Fierceness and White Abarrio did not break as smoothly as the winner. Fierceness returned to be unsaddled with a bloody mouth after hitting the gate at the start, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. He also exchanged bumps with White Abarrio in the opening sixteenth of a mile before recovering to pressure the pace.

Pletcher also suggested Fierceness might have regressed somewhat after a track-record setting performance in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes presented by Sentient Jet on May 2 in his season debut at Churchill Downs.

"They can give you every indication that they're sitting on another good one, but sometimes it just takes a little more time to recover," he noted. "It certainly wasn't the effort we were hoping for, but it wasn't a bad effort, either."

Pletcher indicated the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 2 would likely be next for his 4-year-old, who was the champion 2-year-old male of 2023 and second to Sierra Leone in voting last year for the 2024 3-year-old male championship.

Dettori's flying dismount. (Scott Serio/Eclipse Sportswire)

Defeated in the Met Mile for the third time was 6-year-old White Abarrio, who finished fifth in this race last year when it was held at Saratoga and third a year earlier when it was staged at its regular home at Belmont Park. Belmont Park is under renovation.

White Abarrio bounced back from those defeats, notably winning the 2023 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

In capturing the Met Mile, Raging Torrent earned a paid, automatic berth into the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile this fall at Del Mar via the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. Raging Torrent ran seventh in the six-furlong Breeders' Cup Sprint last year at Del Mar after starting from the rail.

O'Neill said his horse would return to his base in Southern California, suggesting he might map out one start for Raging Torrent between now and the Breeders' Cup.

The last three Met Mile winners earned championships for their accomplishments during the year of their Met Mile triumphs. Flightline  (2022) and Cody's Wish (2023) both earned dual Eclipse Awards as champion older dirt male and Horse of the Year, and National Treasure (2024) claimed the Eclipse Award as older dirt male last year.

The undercard action on Belmont day at Saratoga was affected by a deluge of rain that poured on Saratoga Springs Friday and into Saturday morning. Two Grade 1 turf stakes – the Jaipur Stakes and the Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes – were canceled and moved to Sunday, June 8, to finish off the card and the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. Two other turf graded stakes – the Wonder Again Stakes and the Pennine Ridge Stakes – were held Saturday but moved to Saratoga’s dirt track.

Nitrogen. (Scott Serio/Eclipse Sportswire)

The Wonder Again featured only three horses after scratches and heavy favorite Nitrogen romped over the sloppy track to win geared down by jockey Jose Ortiz. The Medaglia d’Oro filly won her fifth race in eight career starts, all of those victories coming consecutively and at the stakes level. In the Pennine Ridge, A. P. Kid moved up from a pace-pressing position to engage frontrunner Mi Bago and then surged past that rival in midstretch to win going away by 6 ¼ lengths under John Velazquez.

One of the most competitive races on the undercard, the $500,000, Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun, attracted 10 3-year-olds to race seven furlongs. Patch Adams, coming in off of a sharp allowance win on the May 3 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve card at Churchill Downs, pounced in early stretch under Luis Saez and finished strong to defeat Madaket Road and earn his first graded stakes victory over a track upgraded to good in the late afternoon. The Brad Cox trainee improved to three wins from six career starts.

Some of the best dirt sprinters matched up in the $400,000, Grade 3 True North Stakes held at 6 ½ furlongs, and after an intense stretch duel it was the classy New Jersey-bred gelding Book’em Danno that proved best, as he outfinished Mullikin in the final sixteenth of a mile to prevail by 1 ¼ lengths. Book’em Danno improved his career record to a sterling eight wins in 14 starts with the victory, also including three seconds and one third.