Ky. Derby prep ... or not: Owen Almighty wins Tampa Bay Derby
Allowed to set a soft pace, Owen Almighty dominated six rival 3-year-olds Saturday, drawing away in the homestretch to win the 45th running of the Grade 3, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
Even though the race was a virtual win-and-you’re-in for Kentucky Derby 2025, winning trainer Brian Lynch continued to suggest the victorious Speightstown colt might race May 3 on the Churchill Downs undercard in the Pat Day Mile (G3).
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“There will be conversation,” Lynch said in a post-race TV interview, “but if I was to have my way, I’d still stick to the plan and go to the Pat Day Mile.”
Owned by the Boersma family’s Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, Owen Almighty (5-2) was taken to the lead by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., whose face was flush with excitement as he sought out trainer Brian Lynch in the winner’s circle afterward.
“I tapped him on the shoulder when they started getting close to me,” Ortiz said, his voice hushed but excited, “and whoosh.”
Whoosh, indeed. The 3-year-old colt accelerated like the proverbial freight train, extending his winning margin at the wire to 3 1/2 lengths from dual Grade 1 winner Chancer McPatrick. Hill Road rallied for third, another 2 3/4 lengths in arrears. The betting favorite Patch Adams finished fourth in the seven-horse field.
The winning time of 1:42.30 for the 1 1/16 miles on the fast main track was the second fastest in race history, bettered only by the 1:41.90 mark of Tacitus in 2019.
Owen Almighty, who had been disqualified after finishing first on the same track in the Pasco Stakes on Jan. 11 and was a valiant second to John Hancock on Feb. 8 in the Sam F. Davis Stakes, earned a cool $210,000 for his first graded-stakes victory.
Despite Lynch’s leaning toward shorter races, Flying Dutchmen chief operating officer Payton Boersma seemed to have other thoughts.
“He (Owen Almighty) really showed what he is made of today,” he said. “He’s going to be really tough going into that Derby. The Kentucky Derby, of course.”
What a pleasant dilemma for Lynch, who collected his second Tampa Bay Derby victory after winning in 2022 with Classic Causeway, a horse he had pointed away from the Kentucky Derby following an 11th-place result in the Florida Derby (G1). Eventually, Classic Causeway ran for the roses and finished 11th.
In spite of the dilemma, Lynch was living in the moment Saturday.
“I’m just thrilled. He’s run two crackerjack races here, and of course this Derby is the big race of the meet, so it’s nice to see him take it in the fashion he did,” Lynch said. “This is a good field of horses, and it’s not to say the (Kentucky) Derby winner couldn’t come out of it, but he was the best today.
“It was a great ride by Irad. I didn’t give him any instructions. I just said one thing to him I learned from Bobby Frankel. ‘Class horse, class rider. You two are a perfect match.’ Irad was just waiting (at the quarter pole). He knew he had plenty of horse.
Ortiz believed Owen Almighty was capable of this kind of performance, but the proof was in the hearts and hooves that needed just a little more hands-on prep work.
“We had some cheater blinkers on him last time, and they were still too little,” Ortiz said. “I talked to Brian, and we decided to give him a little fuller blinkers today, and I think it helped. He was there for me when I asked him to go. I tapped him on the shoulder at the quarter-mile pole, and he jumped on the bridle, and I thought that’s what I was looking for before. I knew he had more, but he had not really given it to me before today. He was just waiting on horses and kind of looking around.”
There was an announced crowd of 7,810 at Tampa Bay Downs. The total all-sources wagering handle of $17,630,538 was the second highest in track history, and the on-track handle was $863,599.