John Hancock makes statement with narrow victory in Sam F. Davis Stakes

John Hancock declared himself a 3-year-old to watch on the Kentucky Derby trail with a gutsy half-length victory over Owen Almighty in Saturday’s $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Having just one six-furlong maiden race under his belt, John Hancock not only handled the jump to stakes company and two turns, he did so by outdueling a more experienced rival, Owen Almighty, from the starting gate to the wire.

John Hancock, under Flavien Prat, and Owen Almighty, with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, went right to the front and dueled heads apart through a half-mile in 46.23 seconds and six furlongs in 1:10.49. In deep stretch, when it looked like Owen Almighty, equipped with blinkers for the first time, was starting to get away, John Hancock came right back along the rail to get the victory.

John Hancock, a son of Constitution owned by WinStar Farm and China Horse Club and trained by Brad Cox, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.27 - a stakes record for the distance - and returned $7. He was favored by $2,695 over Owen Almighty.

Prat, in a post-race interview with Tampa Bay publicity, said Owen Almighty “did get ahead of me at the eighth pole. I was trying to give him a chance because he was pretty aggressive going into the first turn and going faster than I wanted to, but he switched off nice on the backside. The both of us made a very good run turning for home. [Owen Almighty] took the lead at the eighth pole, but my horse was very game and came back.”

John Hancock had run just once previously, a three-length maiden win going six furlongs at Tampa on Jan. 8. That lack of experience weighed on Cox as he watched his horse battle with Owen Almighty, a stakes winner at 2 who was making his fifth career start.

“I was a little concerned turning up the backside,” Cox said in a phone interview with Daily Racing Form. “Encouraged by the performance. To go that quick that early and fight off a horse that had multiple runs where we only had the one start … Hopefully, he comes out of it in good shape, I think he will, he’s a nice-moving horse, sound horse. Hopefully, we can give him some time to recover from this one, take a swing somewhere before hopefully taking a big swing in the Kentucky Derby.”

John Hancock earned 20 qualifying points toward the May 3 Kentucky Derby. While John Hancock is 2 for 2 at Tampa, Cox was hesitant about running him back in the Tampa Bay Derby on March 8.

“To think he’s going to run back in four weeks off that hard of an effort I don’t think gives him a fair shot moving forward,” Cox said.

Cox, who has multiple 3-year-olds eyeing Derby points-scoring races, said he would evaluate how John Hancock comes out of the race before starting to contemplate where he would make his next start.

Owen Almighty, after getting disqualified from a win in the Pasco Stakes going seven furlongs here on Jan. 11, ran creditably well in his first start going two turns.

“He tried, he did give it everything he had,” trainer Brian Lynch told Tampa publicity. “He just got beat by a better horse today. We’ll take a deep breath and let the dust settle. We’ll just regroup and put our heads together. … Very happy with the way he ran. We’ll put our heads together with our crew and I’m sure we’ll stay the course.”

Poster, who was about 10 lengths off the pace early, did come with a nice run to be third, beaten 2 2/3 lengths for the win while finishing a neck in front of the maiden Camp Hale. Poster is trained by Eoin Harty, as is Very Bold, who finished fifth.

"I thought they both ran very well, considering how far back they had to come from and that they were both very wide,” Harty said. “But they both rallied and finished strongly. I'm very happy with them, though I would have been happier if I'd won. They both showed up. That gives me optimism for moving forward with them both.”

Following Very Bold in the order of finish were Naughty Rascal, Dr Ruben M, Treaty of Rome and Gateskeeper.

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