2022 Eclipse Awards: Olympiad
In an era where Grade 1-level horses make only a handful of starts, Olympiad was a bit of a throwback.
In 2022, Olympiad ran eight times, winning six races, including five graded stakes, to earn a spot as a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division. One of his two losses came in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he finished second to the undefeated Flightline.
Trainer Bill Mott had high hopes for Olympiad in his youth, but the son of Speightstown was away from the races for a year – September 2021 to September 2022 – due to myriad issues, which Mott called mostly baby stuff.
Olympiad returned in the fall of 2021, winning once from three starts.
That set him up for a solid 2022 campaign. In January, Olympiad won an allowance race at Gulfstream Park by 7 1/4 lengths. He then took the Grade 3 Mineshaft in February and Grade 2 New Orleans Classic in March, both at Fair Grounds.
:: Full list of 2022 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories
Olympiad ran his winning streak to five with similar stalking-style victories in the Alysheba and Stephen Foster – both Grade 2 stakes run at Churchill Downs. In the Stephen Foster, he defeated Americanrevolution, the same horse who in December 2021 had beaten Olympiad in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.
“This horse has such a big stride on him and really extends it late in races,” Junior Alvarado, Olympiad’s regular rider, said after the Stephen Foster. “I think as he’s gotten older he’s gotten faster in each start.”
The Stephen Foster win was to set up Olympiad’s return to Grade 1 company in the Whitney. Unfortunately, Olympiad was a non-factor in that race, finishing fourth, 9 1/4 lengths behind Life Is Good.
Mott deduced that Olympiad didn’t handle the heat that day and was eager to give him another Grade 1 try in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, also at Saratoga. Receiving the same stalking-from-second trip that Alvarado had given him in all his previous victories in 2022, Olympiad won the Jockey Club Gold Cup by two lengths.
“He seemed a little dull and really that’s the only excuse I could give him,” Mott said about Olympiad’s Whitney result. “He didn’t fire, but he did come back and rebound well in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.”
Mott said he was looking forward to the challenge of taking on Flightline in the Classic, calling it a privilege to be in such a highly anticipated race.
Sent off a generous 26-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic behind Flightline, Olympiad proved best of the rest, finishing a half-length in front of Taiba.
“Our horse ran great,” Mott said. “Any other year, he might have won a Breeders’ Cup Classic.”
Olympiad, bred by Emory A. Hamilton, and owned by Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods, finished his career with a record of 8-2-1 from 13 starts and earnings of $3,027,560.
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