At the quarter pole, Odysseus appeared to have no chance to win Saturday’s $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby. Even at the wire, it looked like his frantic final surge had fallen short of catching Schoolyard Dreams. But the photo finish camera indicated otherwise with Odysseus eeking out a nose victory.

Odysseus, who won an allowance race by 15 lengths here last month, completed the mile and one-sixteenth in 1:44.31 seconds under jockey Rajiv Maragh and paid $6.

Odysseus, a son of Malibu Moon owned by Satish Sanan’s Padua Stable and trained by Thomas Albertrani, prompted the pace of the 3-2 favorite Super Saver for six furlongs before dropping several lengths behind the leaders leaving the quarter pole. But once settling into the stretch under jockey Rajiv Maragh, Odysseus reasserted himself, angled inward to split the leaders inside the sixteenth pole and got his nose down first in the final stride.