ON a card of nine races with only 71 declarations it was inevitable that the two top trainers this season — four-time champion and leading stakes earners Jason DaCosta ($35,415,514), and former three-time titlist Anthony Nunes ($30,292,850) — with 12 starters between them, would be well represented.

The opening event, run on the five-furlong straight course for claimers valued at $1 million or $800,000, went to US-bred Uncaptured Empress (7-5), saddled by Nunes, with apprentice Tajay Suckoo guiding the six-year-old mare to a near-three-length margin of victory.

Thirty-seven minutes later, following race two, another US importee, Prosangue (2-5), ridden by Tevin Foster and from the high-powered outfit of DaCosta, was in the winners’ enclosure with a romp of just over eight lengths ahead of the nearest of five rivals.