CLAREMORE, OK—NOVEMBER 11, 2017—Not one but two 2-year-olds secured their first stakes wins when Captain Force and Cloud Ridge earned a dead-heat victory in the $282,552 Black Gold 440 Championship Futurity(RG3) Saturday at Will Rogers.

The pair stopped the timer :21.956 seconds, into a 13 mph crosswind, for the 440 yards to take home $80,527 each after splitting the winners and second-place purses.

Cloud Ridge and jockey Berkley Packer appeared to get the advantage on Captain Force with a late surge, but the latter, under jockey Edwuin Lujan, rallied at the wire to earn the dead-heat win.

Cloud Ridge, who finished third in the Grade 2 Dash For Cash Futurity at Lone Star Park two races back, has never been off the board this season while compiling a (7) 5-1-1 record and banking $163,529 for owner/breeder Randy Davis.

Stacy Capps saddled the Oklahoma-bred son of Carters Cartel from the This Snow Is Royal mare Snow Clouds.

Captain Force, who broke his maiden at Arapahoe in June, got his second career win in the Black Gold final. Trainer Hipolito Michel-Valverde saddled the Kentucky-bred son of Captain Courage for owner Pedro Andazola.

Bred by Gentry Farms, from the champion First Down Dash mare Deelish, Captain Force entered the finals off a third-place effort in the October 27 trials. He has earned $85,460.

Second fastest qualifier Hot Dam Bam A Lam, who defeated Captain Force in the trials, picked up $31,082 for third. Donnie Lee Strickland conditions the Oklahoma-bred gelding for owner/breeder Gene Cox. Also by Captain Courage, Hot Dam Bam A Lam it out of the Hot Colors mare Hot Nova. Gonzalo Gutierrez was riding.

Fastest qualifier Dg Tempter finished fourth followed by One Sweet Policy, Luke Acey, Fast N Furious 123, Can You Pyc Me and Ruler Of The Realm. A Prize Wagon was scratched.