Alysheba Stakes: Olympiad faces quality cast as he seeks fourth straight win
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Citius, altius, fortius. It’s the Olympic motto, and it applies to Olympiad, who since the start of the year has been faster, higher, stronger, with three straight races where his Beyer Speed Figures have topped 101 while ascending the class ladder and strengthening his position as one of the best older horses in the country.
Olympiad on Friday at Churchill Downs will seek his fourth straight victory, all since moving around two turns, in the Grade 2, $500,000 Alysheba Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race for older runners that drew seven others, including two highly accomplished comebackers in Grade 1 winners Happy Saver and Max Player.
The field also includes Fulsome, who won the Grade 3 Oaklawn Mile in his 2022 debut last month, and the multiple stakes winner Weyburn.
But the Alysheba, race 7 on a 13-race card, goes through Olympiad. After winning a second-level allowance at Gulfstream Park in January in his two-turn debut, Olympiad captured the Grade 3 Mineshaft and Grade 2 New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds. The New Orleans Classic was at 1 1/8 miles, the prior two wins at the Alysheba’s distance of 1 1/16 miles. Junior Alvarado was aboard for all three wins and has the mount Friday.
“When he went two turns, Junior said he thought he was much better going two turns than one,” Bill Mott, who trains Olympiad, said at his Churchill Downs barn Tuesday morning. “I’ll try to keep him two turns until he proves differently.”
Mott’s tongue was so firmly planted in his cheek it almost broke through. Olympiad has recorded Beyer Figures of 101, then 102, then 103 in his last three starts while winning by a combined 11 1/2 lengths. He has contending speed and finishes off his races well, which should afford him an ideal trip here. He carries top weight of 120 pounds, conceding two pounds to his seven rivals.
Happy Saver, the Jockey Club Gold Cup winner in 2020, makes his belated first start of the year. He was intended for the Saudi Cup, but the day he was scheduled to ship, “his leg blew up,” said his trainer, Todd Pletcher.
“We never figured out what it was. It was the kind of thing that might have gone down right away, but I didn’t feel comfortable putting him on a plane and sending him halfway around the world,” Pletcher said.
Happy Saver has a history of running well fresh, as he won his career debut in 2020 and his first start last year following a 7 1/2-month layoff.
“We had to regroup, landed on this spot,” Pletcher said. “Timing-wise it fit, and he ran well over the track in the Clark last fall.”
The Clark was Happy Saver’s last race, a second to the since-retired Maxfield, and it followed a second-place finish when defending his title in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
The horse who beat him in the Jockey Club Gold Cup was Max Player, who subsequently finished last of eight in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Max Player also is making his first start of the year. He was particularly effective last year in New York, where he won the Suburban before the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Both those races are at 1 1/4 miles.
“A mile and a sixteenth is not ideal, but he’s come back beautifully,” said his trainer, Steve Asmussen. “It’s a solid starting spot to point to Belmont.”
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Fulsome got an ideal setup in the Oaklawn Mile, which had a crackling pace, setting the stage for Fulsome’s late charge. It would be shocking if this race unfolded similarly, but Fulsome is unbeaten at Churchill, having won last year’s Grade 3 Matt Winn.
Weyburn has yet to win going two turns, but comes off a comeback victory last month in the seven-furlong Sir Shackleton at Gulfstream in his initial start for Brendan Walsh, his first start in six months. He figures to be prominent early, at the least. Weyburn’s lone graded stakes win came in last year’s Grade 3 Gotham.
Militarist, fourth in last fall’s Clark, made no impact in a second-level allowance April 13 at Keeneland in his first start of the year.
California invader Soy Tapatio, last of seven in the Santa Anita Handicap in March following victories against maidens and in a first-level allowance, made incremental late progress in a fast-early, slow-late, second-level allowance last time out. His biggest asset is his new rider, Flavien Prat.
Title Ready, now in his sixth yearly campaign, has topped out at an 87 Beyer in his last four starts. He seems well shy of his best form of years past.
