More Gold for Olympiad in Stephen Foster

[Wandering Eyes]

The streaking Olympiad (Speighstown) punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in style with an ultra-impressive fifth consecutive victory in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GII Stephen Foster S. at Churchill Downs.

The 3-2 favorite raced in between rivals as five of them stacked up passing the grandstand the first time. Olympiad found a good spot rounding the clubhouse turn and raced in a tracking second behind Caddo River (Hard Spun) through fractions of :23.05 and :46.45. He turned up the heat on the pacesetter on the far turn as promoted GI Kentucky Derby winner Mandaloun (Into Mischief) wound up with a three-wide move of his own. Olympiad hit the front at the quarter pole, drew clear in the stretch and was never seriously threatened by the late rally of GI Cigar Mile H. winner Americanrevolution (Constitution) to score by 2 1/4 lengths. Proxy (Tapit) flew from the clouds for a well-beaten third; Mandaloun was fourth.

Olympiad has been perfect in five subsequent starts since finishing fourth with trouble while making his stakes debut in the Cigar Mile last December. His current winning streak also includes victories in the GIII Mineshaft S. Feb. 19, GII New Orleans Classic S. Mar. 26 and GII Alysheba S. last time May 6.

Pedigree Notes:

Hailing from one of the best Emory Hamilton families, Olympiad is out of a Grade III-placed half-sister to GII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile heroine Hungry Island (More Than Ready), whose three winners from three to the races includes the stakes-placed Hamilton homebred mare Hungry Kitten (Kitten's Joy). Tokyo Time is also a half-sister to GSW Soaring Empire (Empire Maker) and to Flying Dixie (Dixieland Band), the dam of GISW and current Airdrie Stud sire Preservationist (Arch). Third dam Chic Shirine, winner of the 1987 GI Ashland S. and fifth in that year's GI Kentucky Oaks for Wayne Lukas, was a full-sister to champion older mare Queena and bred the graded-winning full-sibs Waldoboro (Lyphard) and Tara Roma as well as the dam of GISW Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid) and SW Rasta Farian (Holy Bull). Dual Grade I winner Verrazano (More Than Ready) also appears under the third dam.

Olympiad is bred on the exact same cross as ill-fated Grade I winner Rock Fall and GISW Competitionofideas and additional graded winners Souper Stonehenge and Strike Power.

Tokyo Time is the dam of the maiden 3-year-old colt Friendship Road (Quality Road), a 2-year-old filly by War Front and a yearling colt by American Pharoah. She was most recently served by Quality Road.

The post More Gold for Olympiad in Stephen Foster appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article