Ian Wilkes, trainer of McCraken, believes McCraken is one of the elite 3-year-olds in the country, but that it is time for the colt to do the talking, and not him.

Saturday in the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs, the colt delivered as the heavy favorite - though to these eyes he still has some room to go if he is match the high opinion Wilkes has of him.

To McCracken credit, he overcame a poor start that seemed to cost him a few lengths at the break, but otherwise his trip was super smooth, and in the end McCraken over beat Colonelsdarktemper by 2 1/4 lengths. He rated behind a hot pace, surged four wide on the second turn to take command into the stretch, and then seemed to stay in pretty much the same pace while drifting toward the rail under left-handed urging from regular jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

He raced 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:42.84, paying $2.40.

The Matt Winn marked his first start since he ran eighth in the Kentucky Derby, a race from which he sustained a puncture would to his left hind leg in the race's mad dash to the first turn.

Wilkes said before the Matt Winn that his horse could return this summer in the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, where he could potentially meet Derby winner Always Dreaming and Preakness winner Cloud Computing, whose connections are also targeting the race.