Sent off the even-money favorite in a field of eight older runners, Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable LLC and LNJ Foxwoods' Olympiad scored his first stakes victory on Saturday at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., coming from just off the pace under Junior Alvarado to win going away by 2 1/4 lengths.
Pacesetter Silver Prospector finished second, with Miles D a length back in third and a neck ahead of O Besos in fourth. They were followed by Happy American, Untreated, Sprawl and Midcourt. Title Ready, Fort Peck and Big Dreaming scratched.
Olympiad ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in 1:42.01 and paid $4 to win.
Trained by Bill Mott, Olympiad is a 4-year-old son of Speightstown out of the Medaglia d'Oro mare Tokyo Time. He was bred in Kentucky by Emory A. Hamilton and sold by Gainesway to Solis/Litt for $700,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Silver Prospector and Joel Rosario seized command shortly after the start, with Olympiad lapped on his right flank as the field rounded the first turn. Silver Prospector maintained a comfortable advantage while setting fractions of :24.18, :48.11 and 1:12.48 for the opening six furlongs. But Alvarado had the frontrunner measured throughout and moved to the lead in the stretch, passing the mile marker in 1:35.98 and pulling away in the final sixteenth.
Olympiad ran twice at two, exiting the maiden ranks at Saratoga in his second start on Sept. 5, 2020, then didn't surface for another year, finishing second to Mott stablemate Baby Yoda in a highly rated allowance race and earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure as runner-up. He won an October allowance race at Keeneland, then finished fourth behind Americanrevolution with a troubled trip in the G1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Dec. 4. Olympiad aired by 7 1/4 lengths in a Gulfstream Park allowance on Jan. 15 in his most recent start coming into the Mineshaft.
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