Olympiad works five furlongs for Whitney Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Olympiad, who has won four graded stakes this year as part of a 5-for-5 campaign, worked a strong five furlongs in 1:00.86 over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track Sunday morning in preparation for the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes here on Aug. 6.
Olympiad, under exercise rider Neil Poznansky, started about 1 1/2 lengths in front of Gilded Age, and basically maintained that margin throughout the work in which he got his last quarter in 23.56 seconds.
“I put a horse with him to keep everybody honest,” trainer Bill Mott said. “He’s a good work horse anyway, but you always tell a little more if you have a horse with him. We were going to try and let him wait until the other one lapped on him, but when the other one got close he took off.”
Mott said when he asked Poznansky about the work, the reply was “perfect.”
Olympiad is coming off a 2 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster on July 2 in which he earned a 111 Beyer Speed Figure.
Gilded Age, meanwhile, was one of nine horses entered in Friday’s $135,000 Curlin Stakes for 3-year-olds. Gilded Age is coming off a head victory in a 1 1/8-mile allowance at Churchill Downs on July 4. That was his first start since he finished 13th in the UAE Derby.
Among the other horses Mott worked Sunday morning was Travel Column, who went a half-mile in 48.07 over the Oklahoma training track in company with Millefeuille.
Travel Column, a multiple Grade 2 stakes winner at 3, is coming off a third-level allowance win at Churchill Downs on June 29. Mott said owner Larry Best wants to try Travel Column in the Grade 1 Ballerina here on Aug. 28.
“She’s good and she’s already a graded stakes winner, he wants to try the Grade 1,” Mott said.
Mott could have others for the Ballerina including Obligatory, Caramel Swirl and Frank’s Rockette.
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