Olympic Runner catches Town Cruise in King Edward
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Olympic Runner ($16.80) ran the race of his life under Rafael Hernandez and won Sunday’s Grade 2 King Edward, an important prep for the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.
Olympic Runner covered the one-mile distance on the main turf in a posted time of 1:31.73, which lowered the course record by two-hundreds of a second, according to the Gmax system.
“It was a good trip; we got lucky,” said Hernandez, who also rode the son of Gio Ponti when he was a troubled second in his previous race in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup. “Last time, it was hard trip. We had nowhere to go. Finally at the sixteenth, we found a way to go, and it was too late. (This race) was longer. We got a long stretch. That helped a lot.”
Olympic Runner saved ground in midpack about three lengths off the leading Town Cruise, who set honest fractions with Gray’s Fable tracking him in second.
Olympic Runner began to make his move early in the stretch, and then hit the front inside the eighth pole before going on to score by 1 1/4 lengths over Town Cruise.
Favored March to the Arch, last year’s King Edward winner under Hernandez, rallied from last to finish another head back in third, a neck in front of a hanging Avie’s Flatter. Jolie Olimpica, Valid Point, and Alfons Walde completed the order of finish.
Trained by Mark Casse, Olympic Runner earned $105,000 of the $183,750 purse for owner Gary Barber.