Owen Almighty, second in last month's Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in his most recent start, was able to take Tampa Bay Downs’ top prize when the stakes were highest with a win in the Grade 3 $350,000 Lambholm SouthTampa Bay Derby on March 8.

Able to set a leisurely pace of :23.84, :48.16, and 1:12.54 in the 1 1/16-mile dirt race, Owen Almighty kicked away from the opposition at the head of the lane and scored a 3 1/2-length victory over comebacking Chancer McPatrick. Chancer McPatrick's similarly returning stablemate, Hill Road, was 2 3/4 lengths back in third.

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The victory earned Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing's Owen Almighty 50 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve, giving him 65 overall points to place him second on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. His trainer, Brian Lynch, has suggested he thinks the colt might be better suited to races shorter than the Derby's 1 1/4 miles, but he left open the Derby possibility after Saturday's race.

"There will be conversation (about perhaps targeting the Kentucky Derby) but if I was to have my way, I'd still stick to the plan and go to the Pat Day Mile," he said of the $600,000 Grade 2 race on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

Payton Boersma, the COO of Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, was not thinking Pat Day Mile moments after the Tampa Bay Derby.

"This horse really showed what he's made of today," he said. "He's going to be really tough going into that Derby. The Kentucky Derby, of course."

Owen Almighty had no issue with 1 1/16 miles the way Saturday's race unfolded. He flew his final five-sixteenths in :29.76, topped by a final sixteenth in :05.84 for a final time of 1:42.30 on a fast track. His clocking was the quickest in the Tampa Bay Derby since Tacitus  won the race in 1:41.90 in 2019.

The Tampa Bay Downs surface generated some fast times Saturday. Earlier on the card, the $3.4 million-earning older horse Skippylongstocking lowered the 1 1/16-mile track record in taking the Grade 3 Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes for older horses in 1:41.20

Owen Almighty provided jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and Lynch with a second Tampa Bay Derby triumph. They previously partnered to win the 2022 race with Classic Causeway, who later went on to place 11th in that year's Kentucky Derby.

Owen Almighty won by 3 1/2 lengths. (Juliana Colombo/Eclipse Sportswire)

Ortiz said he felt that a larger cup in Owen Almighty blinkers improved his mount's focus Saturday.

"He was just waiting on horses and kind of looking around," he said of Owen Almighty's past starts. "Today when I tapped him, he jumped on the bridle, and I said 'Let's roll.' I didn't wait for nobody, and he didn't wait for nobody, so that was huge."

Attempting to rally into quick closing fractions, dual Grade 1 winner Chancer McPatrick and the Grade 1-placed Hill Road lost ground behind the winner in the stretch. The two horses, both trained by Chad Brown and equipped with blinkers for the first time, were making their first starts since running respectively sixth and third in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile presented by TAA last fall at Del Mar.

Patch Adams, the 1.90-1 post time favorite, finished well-beaten in fourth. Brodeur was fifth.

The second- through fifth-place finishers earned Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 25-15-10-5 basis. Chancer McPatrick and Hill Road now have 35 and 24 total qualifying points, respectively, with the potential to earn more in one more major 3-year-old race in a month's time before the Triple Crown series begins. Though they lost Saturday, the race may advance them toward improved efforts in planned starts next month. Brown had indicated before the race that his 3-year-olds were short of the desired fitness.

In its history, the Tampa Bay Derby has produced two Kentucky Derby winners, Tampa Bay Derby winner Street Sense in 2007, and Super Saver in 2010, who had run third in the Tampa Bay Derby. The last Tampa Bay Derby horse to hit the board in the Kentucky Derby was Tacitus, who showed in the 2019 Derby.