When he had one win from his first 10 starts and just had gotten walloped in an Illinois-bred allowance race, Sir Anthony looked more like a commoner than a horse you might call “Sir.”

Now, you can call him the winner of the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker on Friday night.

Sir Anthony rallied from ninth of 10 runners into a strong pace and beat 7-2 shot Dark Vader by a neck, with 2018 Cornhusker winner Remembering Rita – who ran well enough to repeat – a half-length farther behind in third. Sir Anthony got 1 1/8-miles on a fast track in 1:48.98 and paid $18.80 to win while giving veteran jockey Pedro Cotto Jr. the first graded-stakes tally of his career.

Cotto, who has 7,576 mounts in North America, had gone 0-1-2 from his first 25 graded-stakes starters. Flavien Prat had been named to ride Sir Anthony but didn’t travel from Saratoga, and Cotto’s agent, Ben Allen, gave up a couple mounts (one a winner) at his Arlington base to take a shot on Sir Anthony for trainer Tony Mitchell and owner-breeder Richard Otto.

During the course of Sir Anthony’s early abject wandering Mitchell subtracted blinkers and added Lasix, and suddenly last August at Arlington, Sir Anthony won the $100,000 Bruce D. Memorial at odds of 35-1, the first of four straight victories. Over the winter in Florida he added an upset in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday and a second-place in the $100,000 Skip Away Stakes, and, rebounding from a somewhat disappointing performance May 11 in the Hanshin Cup at Arlington, Sir Anthony on Friday night won the richest race of his career.

Longshot Pinson, chased by Remembering Rita, set off for the lead, going his first quarter mile in 23 seconds before Remembering Rita poked his head in front through a half-mile split in a testing 46.72. Remembering Rita quickly put Pinson away and went six furlongs in 1:10.72 as a stalking Dark Vader cranked up for a run. Meanwhile, Cotto had settled Sir Anthony into a comfortable rhythm several lengths behind a bunched lead pack, all of whom were probably too close to the demanding pace, with only Hence behind him. Sir Anthony closed stoutly while wide on the far turn, came into the homestretch with all the momentum, and hit the front in the final half-furlong as both Dark Vader and Remembering Rita battled on bravely.

Remembering Rita finished more than six lengths clear of fourth place Hence, evidence the top three ran good races and that the pace indeed had been enervating, Hence passing six tired rivals in the homestretch. Exclamation Point, the 9-5 favorite, never threatened and finished a one-paced seventh.

The winner is by Mineshaft out of Mourette, by Smart Strike, and is a third-generation homebred for Otto, a Chicagoan. And please – after another graded-stakes win, don’t forget to call him Sir.