Olympiad's stock rises again with New Orleans Classic victory
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Olympiad continued his ascent in the older male dirt division with a decisive two-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 New Orleans Classic in a near-track-record time at Fair Grounds.
Under Junior Alvarado, Olympiad stalked from second the pacesetting Promise Keeper, overtook that one at the three-sixteenths pole, and drew clear for the victory. Proxy, second in a pair of graded stakes at Fair Grounds last year as a 3-year-old, finished second by 2 3/4 lengths over Promise Keeper.
Super Stock was fourth, followed by Happy American and Chess Chief, the latter having won this race a year ago.
Olympiad won for the fifth time in eight starts and fourth from six races since missing most of his 3-year-old year due to a number of minor injuries, according to his trainer Bill Mott. Last month, Olympiad won the Grade 3 Mineshaft here in what was then a track record of 1:42.01 for 1 1/16 miles. That record was broken Thursday by Shared Sense, who won an allowance in 1:39.91.
Olympiad earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure.
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Olympiad’s final time for the 1 1/8-miles Saturday was 1:47.64, just .10 off the stakes and track record set by Nate’s Mineshaft in this race in 2012.
As impressive as Olympiad was winning a pair of 1 1/16-mile races earlier this year, it stood to reason he would be able to handle 1 1/8 miles. Still, Mott wanted to see the horse do it first.
“You always wonder at each increment how they’re going to do, if they’re going to pass the test,” Mott said in a post-race interview on Fair Grounds’ simulcast feed. “That’s the fun about it, every race is a new situation and he’s answering all the questions right now.”
Olympiad broke sharply in the New Orleans Classic, but Alvarado was glad to let Promise Keeper, under Tyler Gaffalione, dictate terms. Olympiad was two lengths off the pace after a half-mile in 47.25 seconds and a length behind after six furlongs in 1:11.45. When Alvarado asked Olympiad to go after the leader, the 4-year-old son of Speightstown responded with a strong run.
“My horse left there running, he put himself in a good spot, I knew if nobody wanted the lead l could have taken the lead if I wanted to, but it’s easier this way, he has a target, he doesn’t lose interest,” Alvarado said. “It worked out great.”
Olympiad returned $3.20 as the heavy favorite. Olympiad is owned by Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods.
With a Grade 3 and Grade 2 victory in his last two starts, the next target is a Grade 1 for Olympiad somewhere in the not-too-distant future.
“We’d like to get him in a Grade 1 and get that job done,” Mott said.