Woodbine: Pyrite Mountain beats Horse of the Year Uncaptured in Wando

ETOBICOKE, Ontario—Pyrite Mountain rallied strongly from last to upset reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured in Sunday’s $116,600 Wando Stakes at Woodbine.

Midnight Aria set quick fractions in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, while being tracked by Uncaptured and Tesseron. Pyrite Mountain raced inside about seven lengths off the pace on the backstretch, before moving into contention on the far turn.

Pyrite Mountain was angled wide for the drive by Luis Contreras, and then overtook Uncaptured around the sixteenth pole en route to a 1 1/2-length score, in 1:44.24.Uncaptured nosed out Midnight Aria for second, and Tesseron faded to fourth in a field reduced to four with the scratches of Are You Kidding Me, Steel Dust Dancer, and Dynamic Sky.

“My horse broke a little bit slow,” said Contreras. “I tried to save the ground on both turns, and tried to save him for a nice kick at the end. He’s so nice to ride.”

Pyrite Mountain paid $9.20, and the exacta returned $14.30. There was no other betting on the race.

Pyrite Mountain, a Mark Frostad-trained son of Silent Name, banked $75,600 for Awesome Again Racing Limited Partnership.