IT has been a great season for the three-year-olds in the US and, while Sovereignty and Journalism are likely to return next year, a dark horse in the mix for top honours could be the Steve Asmussen-trained Magnitude

The Not This Time colt beat a decent field including the Dubai World Cup-winner Hit Show to win the Grade 2 Clark Handicap over nine furlongs at Churchill Downs last Friday.

When Magnitude romped in by over nine lengths in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds in February, he looked like a horse in the mix for the Derby at Churchill Downs.

But an ankle chip needed surgery and sidelined him along the Derby trail.

But he had his moment beneath the twin spires, surging past front-runner in Chunk Of Gold, he held a late bid from Hit Show to prevail by a half-length under Jose Ortiz, for owners Winchell Thoroughbreds.

“He had to dig in late to get by, but he was very game,” Ortiz said. “He has a ton of talent and I think will get better into next year.”

The victory was Magnitude’s first at the graded level since his return from injury. He had won the ungraded Iowa Derby in July at Prairie Meadows, was third behind Sovereignty and Bracket Buster in the Travers Stakes, and second to Baeza in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing.

“We’ve been waiting for him to put in a performance like that all year long,” David Fiske, racing manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said.

Asmussen said it was the colt’s best effort. “He won (the Risen Star) that day with a bias. I think today he beat a talented group of horses.”

Magnitude has big shoes to fill as he became the first three-year-old to win the Clark since the Asmussen-trained and Winchell-owned Gun Runner won it in 2016, prior to his 2017 Horse of the Year campaign.

Big weekend for Juddmonte

Chad Brown sent three horses to Del Mar for the turf contests on Thankgiving weekend and dominated, as Segesta made it a clean sweep when she took the $302,000 Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes.

The extra element of the weekend wins was that he won the two Grade 1s with a pair of half siblings.

Ghostzapper’s Segesta took the Matriarch after her three-year-old Speightstown half-brother, Salamis, won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Saturday, both home-breds out of the Grade 1-winning Juddmonte mare Antonoe.

Their victories were different. Salamis and Umberto Rispoli came late to get up in the final strides of his race while victory never appeared in doubt from the first jump for Segesta and Flavian Prat.

Prat settled the four-year-old filly as In Our Time led with top sprinter Ag Bullet in pursuit as she stretched out to a mile.

When Prat asked the question around the far turn, Segesta made up ground on the two frontrunners and ran on by as they entered the stretch. In Our Time and Ag Bullet battled on in second and third, but Segesta was an easy winner by two and a quarter lengths. It was Juddmonte’s record with an eighth win as an owner. Segesta has now won over $1m in prize money.