Ocean Knight backed up his visually impressive win at Aqueduct in November with another win at Tampa Bay. The margin of victory was just a head, but Ocean Knight was clearly the best horse in the Sam F. Davis.
Ocean Knight may have broken a slight step slow and was 4-5 wide through the first turn, but was able to establish position outside of the speed in the second flight. Relaxing in 3rd and 4th through the first turn and down the backstretch. My Johnny Be Good and Ocean Knight played cat and mouse down the backstretch with Ocean Knight always looking like he had more horse.
Into the stretch, My Johnny Be Good, put in a small move, but was under the whip quickly while Ocean Knight used all of the stretch to reel in a stubborn Divine Rod, who had set all the fractions and led into the stretch.
My Johnny Be good make a move into the turn against Diving Rod, but Divining Rod had plenty left for the stretch. My Johnny Be Good was used first and ran evenly through the lane once passed by Ocean Knight.
Ocean Knight is a well-built horse and probably has 100 pounds on the runner-up size wide. Divining Rod did gallop out well and Ocean Knight has now pulled up quickly in both his races.
Ocean Knight is taking the path of least resistance. Curlin has been producing some late developing runners and Stormy Atlantic has been a turf sire and solid synthetic sire. It looks like Curlin will go to the Tampa Bay Derby next, with zero points and once you commit to that race you would have to race back quickly for another prep. So it looks like they are taking the 3 lifetime starts and 2 prep race path to the derby. Ocean Knight has won both his races being outside horses and seems to have the foot speed.
He will go in very inexperienced just like his sire Curlin, he has not galloped out in both his efforts. Seems like he will be a short horse come 10 furlong time in Louisville.
Divining Rod put in a big effort and most likely will be back in the Tampa Bay Derby. He is a smaller horse, but received lasix today and showed more speed, still some upside and has a pedigree that says distance should be no issue up to 9 furlongs.
My Johnny Be Good, ran a solid race, raced with the winner to the turn and lost only by a couple of lengths. Has not received lasix yet so they still have that calling card. This was a step up in class and was coming off a 14 length win. Pedigree says Tampa Bay Derby is still within his scope and would not be surprised to see My Johnny Be Good get a more aggressive ride in the next race. His jockey spent most of the race watching Ocean Knight who was to his outside.
Ami’s Flatter ran a disappointing race. Not sure what happened was outrun for the first half mile and then started running late and actually closed some ground down the stretch. Ami’s Flatter has some talent but runs in spurts. Royal Son threw in a clunker, did not show speed and was rated off the pace, this horse seems to run better near the lead. Still has some upside but not sure where he fits against winners at this time.
Ranking the 2015 Stakes Winning Performances –
This indicates top performances not who is better than who.
El Kabeir – Jerome
Calculator – Sham
Upstart – Holy Bull
Ocean Knight – Sam F. Davis