The graded-placed Owen Almighty, disqualified from victory in the Jan. 11 Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs due to interference, aims for his first route success in the 1 1/16-mile Sam F. Davis Stakes Feb. 8 at Tampa.
Among his nine opponents are Poster, winner of the 2024 Remsen Stakes (G2) and unbeaten in three starts; Mucho Macho Man Stakes runner-up Treaty of Rome; quick debut winner John Hancock; and two horses who faced Owen Almighty in the Pasco, led by Naughty Rascal, who was elevated from second to first with Owen Almighty's disqualification by stewards to fifth. Naughty Rascal is a three-time stakes winner.
The Sam F. Davis, worth a base of $200,000 with an additional $50,000 for Florida-breds, was downgraded this year from grade 3 to listed status, but it remains a designated stop on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. It awards Kentucky Derby (G1) qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis to its first five finishers. Additionally, it can advance horses toward Tampa's richest race for 3-year-olds, the $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby (G3) March 8.
Owen Almighty currently has five qualifying points, having finished second in the one-mile Iroquois Stakes (G3) last fall at Churchill Downs in his start that preceded the seven-furlong Pasco. Before the Iroquois, he had won the Ellis Park Juvenile Stakes and a maiden race at Churchill Downs, both sprints.
The Sam. F. Davis will be his longest race, over a middle distance trainer Brian Lynch believes the colt can handle.
"I don't know that he's going to get a mile and a quarter," he said, referring to the classic Derby distance, "But I think he'll get two turns."
Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing's Owen Almighty is a son of the late Speightstown, known for passing along speed to his progeny, and the colt is out of the Bayern mare Tempers Rising, second in the 1 1/16-mile Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) in 2020.
Irad Ortiz Jr., aboard when Owen Almighty was demoted to fifth by stewards in the Pasco, returns in the irons. Owen Almighty will add blinkers.
Ortiz teamed with Lynch to win the 2022 Sam F. Davis with Classic Causeway .
Godolphin's Poster, a son of Munnings , cuts back distance from 1 1/8 miles after lasting for a nose victory over Aviator Gui in the Dec. 7 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack. That race, his first start on dirt, followed two earlier turf wins, both at a mile, in Kentucky. He has trained in Kentucky for much of the winter.
Like other horses stabled at Turfway Park, he missed some training due to snow and bitter cold in Kentucky in early to mid-January. The Eoin Harty trainee worked twice there late in the month before heading south to Tampa and breezing five furlongs in 1:01 3/5 over the local surface Feb. 2.
Antonio Gallardo is up.
Flavien Prat, who had ridden Poster in the Remsen, is instead aboard the Constitution colt John Hancock for trainer Brad Cox.
Harty also runs Calumet Farm's Very Bold, the official second-place finisher from the Pasco. Jesus Castanon rides.
No Sam F. Davis competitor has won the Kentucky Derby. Its top finisher was 2006 Sam F. Davis winner Bluegrass Cat, who ran second in that spring's Run for the Roses.
The Sam F. Davis is one of four dirt stakes races Saturday at Tampa.
Tampa Bay Downs, Saturday, February 8, 2025, Race 11Entries: Sam F. Davis S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Camp Hale (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 120 Ian R. Wilkes - 2 Treaty of Rome (KY) Dylan Davis 120 Chad C. Brown - 3 John Hancock (KY) Flavien Prat 120 Brad H. Cox - 4 Dr Ruben M (KY) Junior Alvarado 120 Doug F. O'Neill - 5 Gateskeeper (KY) David Cohen 120 S. Jade Cunningham - 6 Owen Almighty (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 120 Brian A. Lynch - 7 Poster (KY) Antonio A. Gallardo 124 Eoin G. Harty - 8 Naughty Rascal (FL) Edwin Gonzalez 120 Gerald S. Bennett - 9 Smoken Boy (KY) Paco Lopez 120 Jose Francisco D'Angelo - 10 Very Bold (KY) Jesus Lopez Castanon 120 Eoin G. Harty -
