Owen Almighty looks to get back on track in local return

Almost exactly a year ago, Owen Almighty stuck his head in front at the quarter pole of the Kentucky Derby.

“It’s indescribable,” Hunter Rankin, president for Travis Boersma’s Flying Dutchmen stable, said of Owen Almighty’s Derby run. “I don’t think any of us could have realized the weight of that race and the thrill of having a chance at the top of the stretch.”

Unfortunately, the pack behind Owen Almighty was ready to pounce, and the colt backed up to fifth, beaten a total of nine lengths by eventual Horse of the Year Sovereignty. Although he hasn’t won a race since, Owen Almighty has had troubled trips in two of his three post-Derby outings and now returns to Churchill Downs, a track he’s fond of, for Tuesday’s eighth race, a $141,000 allowance/optional-claiming race for horses who have never won three times other than, who have never won four races, or are in for a tag.

Tuesday’s tilt is at 7 1/2 furlongs. Although Owen Almighty won the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby at 1 1/16 miles, trainer Brian Lynch had opined he might be better around one turn, and indeed, he has made his three post-Derby starts going shorter. In last August’s Robert Hilton Memorial at Charles Town, Owen Almighty was forced to steady hard while racing along the inside near the three-sixteenths pole. With virtually no chance, he was allowed to ease through to the line. He turned in an improved effort when third in the Grade 3 Perryville last October at Keeneland. In his first start of 2026, the Army Mule on March 28 at Gulfstream, Owen Almighty again found trouble. Bumped at the start, he was left racing very wide throughout while in contention, then weakened late to be seventh.

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“He’s trained really well since we ran him last time,” Rankin said. “I thought last time, his race was actually a lot better than what it looks like on paper. . . . Just got stuck out there. And I think that race will really tighten him for this one, and hopefully we can set him up for a good year.”

Owen Almighty has run well in all three starts at Churchill Downs, winning his debut and finishing second in the Grade 3 Iroquois at a one-turn mile as a juvenile prior to his creditable Derby effort.

“He always trains well here,” Rankin said of getting the colt back to Kentucky. “He eats better up here than he does down there [in Florida], I think. And he seems to have kind of thrived since he got up here and coming out of that race.”

A good field of nine includes Echo Again, second in the American Pharoah at Oaklawn last out, and Furio, coming off a sharp allowance win at Fair Grounds. They should ensure a lively pace, with Owen Almighty; This Is Uscar, stakes-placed here last November; and U Devil You keeping them honest just behind. U Devil You is coming off an allowance win at Keeneland with the field’s best last-out Beyer Speed Figure.

Flood Zone, winner of the Grade 3 Gotham in 2025, is cross-entered in two races in Florida on Saturday.

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