Despite the brief showers early on in the week and the possibility of slight rain on race day, the clouds stayed at bay on Saturday for the running of the Closest Friend Stakes. The dirt track on which the rae would be run was upgraded to fast the day before and remained so at post time of the 6.5 furlong running of the Closest Friend for two year olds. The horses were wide-eyed as they made their way throughout the post parade, many of the horses in the field having only three starts or less. Some were nervous upon entering the gate, bulling and needing gate assistance, though once in all stood calmly and tense waiting had begun.
Then the bell ran and the starting gates came crashing open and it was the filly Storm Forecast<\/b>, owned by spewu<\/i> out to the lead from the outside by a nose over reminder<\/i> trained Skippin Rocks<\/b>. Just a half length back trailing in third was Cyan Bloodbane<\/b>, trained and owned by waremblem4<\/i>. Out of the gate last and trailing the leader of the race early by five and one-fourth lengths was Single Posse<\/b>, owned by roachdale<\/i>.
Storm Forecast<\/b> then lengthened her lead by a head over Skippin Rocks<\/b> with Cyan Bloodbane<\/b> still in third, dropping back slightly. Two and one-fourth lengths back in fourth was pre-race favorite Swiftsure<\/b>, trained by sanchez<\/i>. with llionart<\/i> trained Forest Ambush<\/b> running three lengths back in fifth. Moving up one place and into sixth was lender1<\/i> trained and owned Think Tank<\/b> with My Man Jack<\/b>, trained by guyinchlt<\/i>, dropping back into eighth and longshot Forty Mean Nurses<\/b>, trained by jarrod4<\/i> moving into seventh. Still trailing the field in ninth and tenth were clk2000<\/i> owned Recognize<\/b> and Single Posse<\/b>.
Starting to come towards home it was Storm Forecast<\/b> still in the lead increasing it by one-fourth of a length over Cyan Bloodbane<\/b> who had now moved up into second. Favorite Swiftsure<\/b> was making his move now and was now up into third, all passing by the rapidly fading Skippin Rocks<\/b>. Still holding his own in fifth was Forest Ambush<\/b> with Think Tank<\/b> in sixth and My Man Jack (ENG)<\/b> moving back into seventh. Moving up one position and into eighth was Recognize<\/b> with longshot Forty Mean Nurses<\/b> right behind in ninth. Still trailing the field nine and three-fourth lengths back was Single Posse<\/b>.
Now the field was coming to the wire and Cyan Bloodbane<\/b> along with favorite Swiftsure<\/b> were quickly gaining on the slowing pacesetter Storm Forecast<\/b>. The came charging to the wire, favorite Swiftsure<\/b> accelerating and surging at the wire to take the Closest Friend Stakes by a length and three-fourths of a length setting a speed figure of eighty-eight under jockey A. Lewis. Owner and trainer sanchez<\/b> was ecstatic over the young undefeated colts victory in first graded stakes start. A length and three-fourths back in second was Cayan Bloodbane<\/b> with pacesetting Storm Forecast<\/b> settling for third.
Also Rans include: Forest Ambush, Think Tank, My Man Jack (ENG), Skippin Rocks, Recognize, Single Posse,<\/b> and Forty Mean Nurses<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Undefeated Swiftsure Wins By 1 3\/4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}