Uncontested, an early-season Arkansas Derby contender, visited a winner's circle Sunday for the first time since January.
Trained by Wayne Catalano, the 3-year-old colt prevailed by 1 1/4 lengths in an allowance/optional claiming sprint at Churchill Downs, which launched its September meet last week. Corey Lanerie rode Uncontested to victory for Harry Rosenblum, of Little Rock, and co-owner Robert LaPenta.
The Tiz Wonderful colt, produced by the Lil E. Tee mare Galileo's Star, won Oaklawn Park's one-mile Smarty Jones Jan. 16, setting stakes records for margin of victory (5 1/4 lengths) and time (1:36.32) over the sloppy track. After disappointing in two graded stakes at Oaklawn, Uncontested placed third in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard May 6 at Churchill Downs, the colt's last start before Sunday.
A Keeneland debut winner last fall, Uncontested is three of nine lifetime with earnings of $196,729.
* Whitmore became a racing millionaire with a third-place finish in Saturday's Grade 3 Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash at Maryland's Laurel Park. The 4-year-old Pleasantly Perfect gelding won Oaklawn's $125,000 Hot Springs March 11 and Grade 3 $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap April 15. His career earnings from 14 starts (seven wins) are $1,022,000.
Ron Moquett is trainer and co-owner of Whitmore, a Grade 3 winner in May at Maryland's Pimlico Racecourse. The gelding had been off since placing third in Belmont's Grade 2 True North June 9.
Chublicious won the DeFrancis with six furlongs in 1:08.75, the fourth stakes victory in the last five races for the 6-year-old New Jersey-bred gelding. Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Ivan Fallunovalot, owned by Lewis Mathews Jr., of Bismarck, won the 2016 running of the former Grade 1 race.
* Oaklawn winner Colonelsdarktemper, a last-out Grade 3 winner for veteran trainer Jinks Fires, is considered likely for Sunday's Grade 3 $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.
With Jon Court, Fires' son-in-law, aboard, the Colonel John colt won the West Virginia Derby for race-car driver A.J. Foyt Jr. The colt will be vanning in from the trainer's Churchill Downs base, Fires told Daily Racing Form on Monday.
Oaklawn-raced Untrapped, third in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby, also is expected for the Oklahoma Derby, said a Remington official. Mike Langford, of Jonesboro, owns and Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen trains the Trappe Shot colt, 12th in the Kentucky Derby.
Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner Girvin and Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Battle of Midway head a field of 3-year-olds estimated Monday at seven.
Sports on 09/20/2017