With the 50 points he earned from Saturday’s stylish victory in the Grade III, $400,000-guaranteed Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, 3-year-old colt Owen Almighty vaulted into second place in the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” standings with 65 points, 5 behind Grade II Rebel Stakes winner Coal Battle.
Owen Almighty already has enough points to qualify for a spot in the Run for the Roses starting gate on May 3 at Churchill Downs (the race is limited to 20 horses). But although his ownership group, Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, and trainer Brian Lynch are tempted by Derby glory, the conditioner has concerns the mile-and-a-quarter Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve distance might prove too taxing, given the horse’s preferred on-or-near-the-lead preference and his pedigree.
Owen Almighty’s sire is Speightstown, who won an Eclipse Award as Champion Sprinter in 2004 and won five stakes races in his career, all at 6 or 7 furlongs. On the other side of his pedigree, Owen Almighty is out of the mare Tempers Rising, who was graded-stakes placed racing a mile-and-a-sixteenth and is a daughter of Bayern, who won the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita at the classic distance of a mile-and-a-quarter.
There are few absolutes when it comes to determining how far a well-bred horse will want to go on the biggest days of their career, so the Flying Dutchmen team and Lynch will take their time deciding which route to go. Lynch has already stated his preference for the Grade II Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard, a race won last year by subsequent Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey.
Stay tuned, but don’t expect an announcement in the next 24 hours.
“He came out of (the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby) real well, and we’re thrilled with what kind of shape he’s in this morning,” Lynch said after receiving a video update from his son Nicolas at their Palm Meadows Training Center base in Boynton Beach while he traveled to Ocala for this week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
“He jogged on the road this morning, he ate all his grain and he was acting like we hoped he would be at this point. The race didn’t take a ton out of him. Now, we’ll train on him this week and see what kind of energy he has and take time to digest everything before we put a schedule together that enables us to do the best thing by the horse.
“And if that means going to the Kentucky Derby, that’s what we’ll do,” Lynch added.
Owen Almighty led from gate to wire under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., Saturday to win by 3 ½ lengths from Chancer McPatrick in a time of 1:42.30 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth distance, second-fastest in race history to the 1:41.90 posted in 2019 by trainer Bill Mott’s Tacitus, who went on to finish third in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Belmont Stakes.
The victory was the second in the Oldsmar oval’s showcase event for Lynch and Ortiz, who won both the 2022 (then)-Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes and (then)-Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby with Classic Causeway. That horse finished 11th in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve.
Meanwhile, trainer Chad Brown was pleased by the performances of his second and third-place finishers, Chancer McPatrick and Hill Road. Chancer McPatrick earned 25 “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points to move to eighth with 35 and Hill Road picked up 15 to move to 17th with 24.
“I would say both horses, the way they galloped out, are legitimate Kentucky Derby contenders now,” Brown told David Grening of the Daily Racing Form. “The way they accelerated on the gallop-out, along with how they came into the race physically, both horses were just a picture of health. I’m excited about their chances at a mile-and-a-quarter, if I can get them there.”
Brown told Grening he will likely enter one in the Grade I Toyota Blue Grass at Keeneland and the other in the Grade II Wood Memorial Presented by Resorts World Casino, both on April 5.
Saturday’s Tampa Bay Downs crowd of 7,810 was treated to numerous thrills throughout the afternoon. Appearances by such high-profile trainers as Lynch, Brown, Mark Casse, Brad Cox, H. Graham Motion and Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., as well as world-class jockeys Irad and his brother Jose Ortiz, 2024 Eclipse Award Champion Flavien Prat, Joel Rosario, Tyler Gaffalione and Frankie Dettori – making his first-ever appearance at Tampa Bay Downs – contributed to a festive atmosphere rarely witnessed in the nearly century-long annals of the track.
Brown took home two stakes, the Columbia on the turf with his promising 3-year-old Ireland-bred ridgling Zulu Kingdom and the Grade II Hillsborough Stakes on the turf with his 6-year-old mare Saffron Moon, who had won the Grade III Endeavour Stakes here on Feb. 1. Prat rode both horses.
Casse and Jose Ortiz teamed to capture the Grade III Florida Oaks with 3-year-old filly Nitrogen, who toured the 1 1/16-mile distance on the turf in stakes-record time of 1:40.42.
In the day’s most electrifying performance, 6-year-old Skippylongstocking wore down Most Wanted through the stretch for his third consecutive Grade III Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes triumph. Skippylongstocking’s victory for owner Daniel Alonso, trainer Joseph and jockey Gaffalione was achieved in a time of 1:41.20, eclipsing Stanford’s 2017 stakes and main-track mark of 1:41.75 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth.
Around the oval. Trainer Ian Wilkes and jockey Pablo Morales entered today’s sixth race, the $50,000, 7-furlong Manatee Overnight Handicap, brimming with confidence in their 5-year-old mare Positano Sunset. They were not disappointed, as the graded-stakes placed runner surged past favorite Dream Concert in the stretch under brisk handling for a 1-length victory. Drifaros was a distant third.
Positano Sunset improved to 4-for-15 in her career. Her career earnings are $462,100. Her time for the distance was 1:21.81. She is owned by Six Column Stables, Randall L. Bloch, John Seiler and David Hall.
Apprentice jockey Sara Hess rode two winners today. She was victorious in the first race aboard Little Carley, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Francis Hopewell and trained by Donna M. Kutt. Hess added the fourth race with Eternal Glory, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Henry J. Nahal and William J. Ritz, III and trained by Gary Contessa.
Thoroughbred racing continues Wednesday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and is open every day except April 20, Easter, for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
