Last week, WinStar Farm president and CEO Elliott Walden playfully took to X, asking the public if WinStar Farm has a chance to win its third Kentucky Derby (G1) in 2025 and then mentioning horses the farm owns or co-owns such as Tappan Street, River Thames, Patch Adams, and Rapture. If not one of these, he asked, then who?
More than 53% responded in the affirmative—a number that would likely be higher after the results at Tampa Bay Downs of the Feb. 8 Sam F. Davis Stakes in which WinStar Farm and CHC's John Hancock proved a game front-running winner by a half-length over the more seasoned stakes winner Owen Almighty. The victory improved John Hancock to 2-for-2 after a debut maiden win last month at Tampa in which he covered six furlongs in 1:09.45. The Sam F. Davis also earned him 20 qualifying points toward the May 3 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, with the race part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby series.
Saturday's 1 1/16-mile race distributed qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis to its first five finishers. Churchill Downs uses as a preference system when the Derby lures more than its capacity field size of 20 horses.
Previously a grade 3, the $200,000 Sam F. Davis was downgraded to listed status for 2025 by the American Graded Stakes Committee.
With one or perhaps two more starts likely before the Run For the Roses, John Hancock could be poised to advance his total. With 20 points, he is tied for the third-most points accumulated in the series, though he ranks seventh in the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard due to having lower non-restricted stakes earnings than four others with 20 points.
He ran like a potential Derby contender Saturday, aggressively going to the lead under Flavien Prat, but the colt never received much of a breather with Owen Almighty glued to his flank down the backstretch after an opening quarter in :22.75. Owen Almighty continued to turn up the heat under Irad Ortiz Jr., and the two raced as a team through quick follow-up fractions of :46.23 and 1:10.49 while distancing themselves from the pack. Despite the taxing pace, not one of the remaining eight 3-year-olds trailing ever threatened the top duo.
Owen Almighty, racing with blinkers added, poked a head in front between calls in the stretch and bumped John Hancock to his inside, but the latter battled back, hitting the wire in a stakes-record time of 1:42.27 on a fast track.
Speed, Heart on Display
"He (Owen Almighty) did get ahead of me at the eighth pole," Prat said. "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, he took the lead at the 1/8 pole but my horse was very game and came back."
The slight favorite over Owen Almighty, John Hancock paid $7 to win.
Godolphin's 2024 Remsen Stakes (G1) winner Poster, trained by Eoin Harty, rallied wide for third, 2 1/4 lengths behind runner-up Owen Almighty. The comebacking Poster, who lost for the first time in four starts, edged the talented maiden Camp Hale, who settled for fourth. Very Bold, another Harty trainee, was fifth.
Poster and Owen Almighty are ranked 11th and 13th on the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard with 16 and 15 overall qualifying points, respectively.
Prat, the Eclipse Award-winning rider of last year, had ridden Poster in the Remsen, but his mount in the Sam F. Davis came on the lightly raced but talented John Hancock.
Cox 'Very Impressed'
Speaking of John Hancock, trainer Brad Cox said, "It was his first time facing winners; it was the second start of his life; it was his first time going long; it was a lot to ask from a young horse. He took a lot of pressure and stayed on well. I'm very, very impressed with him."
Cox added the colt would return after the race to train at Payson Park, where the trainer has added a string of horses in Florida this winter, and the connections would "come up (with) a plan for the future."
John Hancock is a chestnut by Constitution out of the Freud mare Scribbling Sarah, making him a half brother to 2020 Ashland Stakes (G1) winner Speech. WinStar bred him in Kentucky.
One of the leading stallions in North America in 2025, Constitution stands for $110,000 at WinStar in Kentucky.
A Sam F. Davis participant has yet to win the Kentucky Derby, and none have cracked the top three in the first leg of the Triple Crown since Musket Man showed in both the Derby and the Preakness Stakes (G1) in 2009. WinStar's Bluegrass Cat in 2006 fared best in the Derby, running second in the Run for the Roses after winning the Sam F. Davis 2 1/2 months earlier.
WinStar Farm's victories in the Kentucky Derby came as the sole owner of the Todd Pletcher-trained Super Saver in 2010 and as a co-owner in the Bob Baffert-trained Justify , the 2018 Triple Crown winner, along with CHC, which was then listed as China Horse Club.
