Clearly Now clear winner of Swale Stakes

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Hallandale Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Clearly Now, ridden by Luis Saez, surged down the stretch to capture Saturday's $150,000 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 3-year-old colt covered the seven-furlongs in 1:23.19 on a fast track.

On the lead in the 11-horse field was 50-1 longshot Singanothersong with Tulira Castle to his outside. Racing in third was Res Judicata with Gombey Dancer along side and Undrafted close up. Racing off the pace was even-money favorite Forty Tales.

Around the final turn, Clearly Now began to move closer to the leaders from the outside. Trained by Brian Lynch, Clearly Now moved into third coming into the stretch and took the lead inside the furlong pole.

Clearly Now, sent off at 7-1, drove to a 1 3/4-length win over Singanothersong with 4-1 third pick Undrafted finishing in third. Coming in fourth was Tulira Castle followed by Forty Tales, Little Distorted, Dighton, Res Judicata, Gombey Dancer, Nevada and Triple Cross. Merit Man and Are You Kidding Me were early scratches.

Owned by Up Hill Stable, Clearly Now picked up $90,000 with the victory. The colt has won three of five career starts for $214,598.

"With a 3-year-old you're always tempted to think of the big races," Lynch said. "We'll see how he comes out of it and talk about what's next. If we decide to try him long again, the Florida Derby is here and would be a possibility. Who knows? He might turn out to be a top turf miler. We'll see."

Clearly Now won his first two starts at Woodbine and was third to Avie's Quality in the Display Stakes at the Toronto track on Dec. 1. He began his 2013 season with a third-place finish as a 42-1 longshot behind Itsmyluckyday in the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream.

Clearly Now returned $16.00, $8.20 and $5.20. Singanothersong paid $36.40 and $18.00, and Undrafted paid $4.00 to show.