“I think it was just timing,” he reflects. “She was in one of the later books and in foal to Badge of Silver, on a late cover, which wasn't too popular. Mayan Maiden (Lyphard) [her dam] had produced the dam of [turf millionaire] Al Khali (Medaglia d'Oro), but neither she nor had any of her offspring had black type. In fact Emory had sold Mayan Maiden as an older mare to Bobby Flay, carrying Mesa Fresca. And now here was her daughter, and I liked her, thought she looked like some of Emory's mares that I knew from Chic Shirine: that's really what attracted me, just having seen that family do so well for so many years.”

Chic Shirine, of course, was the daughter of Mr Prospector who established the premier branch of the dynasty centered on her dam Too Chic (Blushing Groom {Fr}). Three of Chic Shirine's daughters produced Grade I winners and a fourth has lately emerged as granddam of two more in Olympiad and Preservationist. Those young stallions are now seeking to establish a communal legacy for King Ranch, but for Armstrong the connection always felt highly personal. In his youth, he learned to recite King Ranch pedigrees long preceding his own lifetime–above all, those tracing to Monade (Fr), the imported 1962 Epsom Oaks winner and fifth dam of Mesa Fresca.

“I've been passionate about the horse business ever since I was a child, and have been coming to the sales for 30 years now,” he says. “My father's 'all in' on polo; he's head of the United States Polo Association, but he's interested in Thoroughbreds too and obviously my extended family has long been involved in the business–they raced Assault–and more recently through Emory and [her sister] Helen.

Larkin Armstrong | Keeneland

“So when I took an interest as well, I was able to learn all about it with them. It was more of an obsession than an interest, really: already at age 11 I was deep into catalogues, pedigrees, the Stallion Register. I grew up in Texas, but always came up and stayed with Helen for the sales, and got to look at horses with Emory as well. She bought Too Chic from the King Ranch consignment in the early '80s, and she became her foundation mare.”

Having secured Swain cut-price access to this genetic goldmine, Armstrong compounded the favor by urging the young Scat Daddy as her next cover.

“Jack makes all the final decisions,” Armstrong stresses. “But yes, Scat Daddy was the one I liked. He was just getting going, he'd had some of his Chilean success at that point, but was still only $17,500. So Mesa Fresca had a filly by him, and we always loved her. Jack's plan was to sell her, so when she came through the September Sale, I said that I'd bid on her. I was thinking how Emory keeps as many fillies as she can from that family. Yes, it was a couple generations back to Chic Shirine, but this filly looked a really nice physical athlete. I got her for $80,000, so Jack 'got out' on the mare, but I got a good price, too!”

Swain's real dividend was still to come. Armstrong named the Scat Daddy filly Harmonize, and watched in astonishment as she made her grandam the fifth daughter of Chic Shirine with a Grade I winner underneath.

“I did really, really like her as a foal, but then it just became an amazing ride,” he reflects. “I sent her to Bill Harrigan who used to work for King Ranch back in the day, and I've known forever. He was breaking her at Payson Park, and loved her. And then Bill Mott calls me out of the blue and says, 'I saw your filly go by on the track: would you let me train her?' My parents had horses with him, my uncle as well, and he'd been one of the first trainers I ever met as a child. And now this filly's such a beautiful mover that he wanted to recruit her. Of course I said yes. So she went into his program and next thing you know, she's running at Saratoga.”

Having been beaten a nose when green on debut, she broke her maiden by daylight in a stakes. That set her up for the GIII Jessamine, where she booked herself a spot at the Breeders' Cup. Though disappointing on rain-softened turf there, she matured to win the GI Del Mar Oaks as a sophomore and then missed the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup only in a photo. She also won a Saratoga graded stakes at four, but came up with some bone bruising and had to be retired.

By that stage, her dam was in foal to War Front and Swain was able to sell her to Cheveley Park Stud at Fasig-Tipton that November for $2 million–a spectacular yield on the $15,000 he had paid for her just six years previously. Moreover Swain has two of her daughters (one retained, the other bought back when she came up for auction) in his own program.

Harmonize | Sarah Andrew

Today Harmonize remains the one and only broodmare in Armstrong's ownership. (“I had a lot of offers along the way,” he acknowledges. “But there was always too much emotional attachment with the family to sell.”) As a graded stakes winner three years running, she clearly channels soundness as well as class from her aristocratic genes. Showing the length of perspective one would expect of his clan, Armstrong astutely started her with proven stallions. Her first foal, by the set-your-watch More Than Ready, admittedly produced only a claiming gelding. But then Armstrong sent her to Quality Road, and was rewarded with a colt that made $700,000 from West Point & Woodford Racing as a Saratoga Select yearling in 2021.

This colt required his purchasers to show a bit of patience, but he was in the right barn for that with Shug McGaughey. In August, he romped on debut in a Colonial Downs maiden. Fast-tracked to the GIII Virginia Derby, he overcame his rawness to cut down a strong field with a flamboyant turn of foot, claiming both the unbeaten streak of GI Saratoga Derby winner Program Trading (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and a new course record. For this, of course, is Integration–whose credentials, as potentially one of the premier talents of his crop, will be tested Saturday in the GII Hill Prince S. at Aqueduct.

“Harmonize's first foal hadn't really been a sales prospect so I raced him, just to start her off,” Armstrong recalls. “He has some ability, and tries hard, but it was Integration that always really looked the part: super athletic, super balanced, perfectly correct, medium-sized, great temperament. The mare is not exactly high-strung, but a little more energetic. He's always been just very calm and kind. Brookdale always loved him and so he ended up going to the Saratoga sale, where he was really able to shine. He has an incredible walk, which is I think what really sold him. And now fortunately that's translated to his racing.

“The Virginia Derby seemed like a bold move, but I thought, 'Well, they must really like him!' I thought he caught up with them easily enough, but then there was just a touch of greenness before he really kicked into gear. So I hope he can still improve.”

The one thing Armstrong knows for sure is that Integration had the perfect springboard in being raised and prepped by the Seitz family at Brookdale.

“It's where Jack Swain boards his horses, so Mesa Fresca went there,” he explains. “They did such a great job for him and, as they'd raised Harmonize too, it made perfect sense for her to go back to them when it was time to breed her. It's just been a really positive experience with them, all round. It's great land, and they're great people.”

Given the way Integration has worked out, Armstrong is glad that he has doubled down on the mare. Her next foal, a Curlin colt, brought $400,000 at Keeneland last year; Armstrong has retained her Nyquist yearling filly to race; and she has a weanling colt by Gun Runner.

“I just haven't wanted to shortchange her in any way, and have tried to breed her to really good stallions,” Armstrong says. “She's such an excellent physical, very correct, a beautiful mover, tons of quality. When I do a mating, I really like to have an idea of what I'm trying to produce with it. Obviously it's always a guess. But what are you trying to improve in the mare? What does she have that's going to complement the stallion? So mostly you start with the physical. And then look at pedigree after that. Those unproven sires, you just don't know yet what they're going to throw: both whether they'll be a good stallion overall, but also what traits. They do tend to sell, of course, so sometimes you have to do it–and I did breed her to Flightline this time. But I was just in such awe of him as a racehorse that I jumped at the chance.”

Of course, even if you do everything right, it confounds all the odds to be so lucky with your one and only mare. But his education in the game, and then his own professional experience, together mean that nobody knows that better than Armstrong himself.

“It's been kind of weird,” he admits. “I mean, working with clients, I know how hard it all is. I love the breeding side, love consulting with clients on their whole operation, especially matings, and seeing and evaluating the offspring. I saw Helen develop the Courtly Dee family, and all those horses; and Emory developing hers; and Jack Swain has bred some really good horses too. He bred Exaulted (Twirling Candy) [who won the GI Shoemaker Mile in May], he bred Marley's Freedom (Blame) and Noble Bird (Birdstone), who were also Grade I winners. So I've gotten to see those horses, as well. And it just teaches you that it's a very difficult business.

“Clients have different goals. Sometimes they're wanting to do something shorter-term. But mostly I try to focus on finding quality, and value; and matings to bring out the quality, hopefully to produce a beautiful athlete that can sell well and run. It doesn't have to be either/or. I don't think there's as huge of a disconnect as some people say, between a sales horse and a racehorse. Integration was bred to be a racehorse. He's not huge, not a super-muscular, bulky horse. He's just an athlete with a great mind, a great walk, and really well put together. But people appreciated that, and he sold very well. Chic Shirine has been incredible, of course, has shown how blood can continue on. But it's obviously a super difficult game and, no matter what, you need a whole lot of luck. It's an amazing game and an amazing challenge.”

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Trained by Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, Olympiad captured five graded victories this season, beginning with the GIII Mineshaft S. at Fair Grounds, where he set a track record for 1 1/16 miles. He followed up at the same track with a two-length score in the GII New Orleans Classic S. before adding a pair of wins at Churchill Downs in the GII Alysheba S. and the GII Stephen Foster S.

Bred by Emory Hamilton, Olympiad is out of the Grade III-place Tokyo Time. This is the immediate family of Grade I winner and foundation mare Chic Shirine, from whom 20 graded stakes winners descend. He was purchased from the Gainesway consignment as a yearling for $700,000 by Solis/Litt.

“I have been a huge fan of Olympiad since selling him as a yearling in 2019,” said Gainesway General Manager Brian Graves. “Olympiad has backed up his exceptional looks and pedigree with a tremendous race record. I couldn't be more excited to stand a horse of his quality and talent at Gainesway.”

An advertised fee for Olympiad's first season will be announced at a later date.

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“The way the track is playing, and I knew there wasn't much speed in the race,” said Ortiz, fresh off a victory in the GI Woodward S. one race earlier with Life Is Good (Into Mischief). “The assistant trainer [Anthony Hamilton] told me, 'She's going to be forwardly placed because that's how she's been training.' So I tried to warm her up good… There wasn't too much speed in the race and I knew if I could be in front that would be good for me. It worked out well because I made the lead easily. On the backside, she was nice and relaxed. When I asked her to go, she responded and she was there for me.”

This was the first-ever Miss Grillo win for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, who said, “She ran well in her first start from a little off the pace coming up the rail. She was very professional. Today, there wasn't any speed in the race and she had trained sharp off her last race. Irad let her do her thing when she broke and he rode a good race on her.”

Saturday, Belmont at the Big A
MISS GRILLO S.-GII, $200,000, Belmont The Big A, 10-1, 2yo, f,
1 1/16mT, 1:45.25, yl.
1–PLEASANT PASSAGE, 120, f, 2, by More Than Ready
                1st Dam: Peaceful Passage, by War Front
                2nd Dam: Flying Passage, by A.P. Indy
                3rd Dam: Chic Shirine, by Mr. Prospector
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Emory
Hamilton (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.
$110,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $167,750. Werk Nick
Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Free Look, 120, f, 2, Tapit–Wild Mint, by Medaglia d'Oro.
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($300,000 Ylg '21
KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-KatieRich Farms (KY);
T-Chad C. Brown. $40,000.
3–Be Your Best (Ire), 122, f, 2, Muhaarar (GB)–Kamakura, by
Medaglia d'Oro. 'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
O-Michael J. Ryan; B-St. Croix Bloodstock (IRE); T-Horacio De
Paz. $24,000.
Margins: 3/4, 2, 3/4. Odds: 9.60, 1.65, 1.20.
Also Ran: Alluring Angel (GB), Im Just Kiddin, Georgees Spirit.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs.

Pedigree Notes:

Pleasant Passage is the 53rd graded winner and 130th stakes winner in the Northern Hemisphere for her prolific sire, who has sired two prior winners of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. She is the four graded winner and 16th stakes winner of what are sure to be many more for broodmare sire War Front.

The winner hails from the super deep female family developed by Emory Hamilton and her family's King Ranch. Her dam is a half to MGSW/MGISP Hungry Island (More Than Ready), and further down the page is another standout by More Than Ready in the form of MGISW Verrazano. Other highest-level winners from the family include this year's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup hero Olympiad (Speightstown); Preservationist (Arch), who has first yearlings; third dam Chic Shirine (Mr. Prospector) and her champion sister Queena, Serra Lake (Seattle Slew), Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid), et al.

Pleasant Passage's yearling half-brother by Kitten's Joy was purchased by Legion Bloodstock on behalf of Hoolie Racing for $150,000 at the recently concluded Keeneland September sale. Peaceful Passage, whose one career win from six tries came going 1 1/2 miles on the Kempton all-weather, was bred to Mendelssohn for 2023.

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“He has done so well; it's really amazing,” Hamilton said enthusiastically. “The Whitney is going to be a tough race. There are some really good horses going there, but Bill Mott and his owners have been patient with him and it has paid off.”

Hamilton, who looks forward to drawing out the mating plans for her 10-mare broodmare band every year, said that the cross that produced four-time graded stakes-winning Olympiad was an easy pick. She sent Olympiad's dam Tokyo Time (Medaglia d'Oro), a third-generation homebred for the accomplished breeder, to Speightstown in the hopes of injecting a bit of speed into the pedigree of the resulting foal.

Olympiad was foaled in Kentucky at Middlebrook Farm, which is owned by Hamilton's sister Helen Alexander, and while he wasn't dropping jaws from the beginning, he quickly started to progress as he matured and went through the sales prepping program at Gainesway Farm as a yearling.

“As a foal he was nice, but he wasn't like, 'wow,'” Hamilton admitted. “Then he started to develop as a yearling. Especially in the last three months before the sale, he started to look athletic, he walked really well, and the rest is history.”

At the 2019 Keeneland September Sale, the bay colt sold for $700,000 to Solis/Litt Bloodstock. Lightly raced at two and three, this year Olympiad has maintained a perfect five-for-five campaign for owners Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods. The 4-year-old's most recent definitive victory in the GII Stephen Foster S. punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

Olympiad is the latest success in a long line of top-level racehorses over the past four decades to arise from Hamilton's fruitful breeding program that was built off her foundation mare Too Chic (Blushing Groom).

Bred by Hamilton's family's legendary King Ranch, Too Chic went through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling Sale in 1980.

“I was determined to have her,” Hamilton recalled. “She was not huge as a yearling, but she was very athletic looking. She was a bit crooked, but I had the benefit of knowing the family. She was a descendent of the French mare Monade (Klairon), who my grandfather had bought for King Ranch. Monade was a good size, but she was not perfect physically and she was a champion.”

Hamilton's instincts about her $100,000 purchase proved correct when Too Chic raced to Grade I success, but the true worth of the daughter of Blushing Groom was realized later on in her breeding career.

From 11 foals, Too Chic produced eight winners led by Chic Shirine and Queena, both Grade I-winning daughters of Mr. Prospector that went on to be prolific producers for Hamilton.

Queena, herself a champion on the racetrack, was responsible for Grade I winner and sire Brahms (Danzig) as well as graded stakes winner and producer La Reina (A. P. Indy).

Olympiad as a yearling at the Keeneland September Sale | Keeneland

Chic Shirine produced a pair of Grade II winners and four graded stakes producers. Among those daughters, Flying Passage (A.P. Indy) is the dam of MGSW Hungry Island (More Than Ready), one of Hamilton's top earners on the racetrack; GSW Soaring Empire (Empire Maker); Flying Dixie (Dixieland Band), the dam of Grade I-winning millionaire and sire Preservationist; and Tokyo Time, the dam of Olympiad.

Like many of Hamilton's race fillies in recent years, Tokyo Time was trained by Shug McGaughey. She won four starts on the turf and ran second in the 2013 GIII Herecomesthebride S.

After producing Olympiad, Tokyo Time is also responsible for a 3-year-old filly named Friendship Road (Quality Road) who has made three starts for Hamilton and McGaughey this year, as well as a juvenile filly by War Front who brought $450,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale and a yearling colt by American Pharoah that is pointing for the sales ring this fall. While the mare did not produce a foal this year, Hamilton reported that Tokyo Time is now carrying a full-sister to Olympiad.

Hamilton has maintained the same philosophy over the decades of selling her colts and retaining almost all of her fillies to race and eventually join her boutique broodmare band.

A few of her most recent successes on the racetrack include Texian (Quality Road), who hails from the Queena family line and broke her maiden at Laurel Park in June, as well as two daughters of Hungry Island. Hungry Island's first foal Hungry Kitten (Kitten's Joy) made three trips to the winner's circle and placed in a stake at Belmont in 2020. The mare's second filly Flanigan's Cove (Kitten's Joy) broke her maiden at Keeneland last fall as a 3-year-old for McGaughey and is currently training at Saratoga.

As Hamilton explains, one of the keys to her program after raising generations of influential producers has been to focus on maintaining the quality of her stock.

“It's about trying to protect your mares when you breed them and figuring out the best stallion [for them] as best you can,” she said. “You're not going to knock it out of the park every time, but if you have a stakes winners, that's really exciting. That's what I've tried to do is protect the family and send the fillies to trainers I like.”

As each branch of Too Chic's family continues to blossom year after year, the blue hen mare has become even more meaningful to Hamilton.

“My favorite horse of all time, by far, is Too Chic,” she said, “Everything comes from her that I've owned and it's been a very prolific family, but you also have to get really lucky. It's hard to breed horses, especially in the first couple of matings before you know what kind of foals the mare might have. That's where a lot of luck comes in and you just try to breed them to something good in order to keep the quality up.”

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Away alertly, the odds-on favorite raced prominently under the wire for the first time and had company to his inside in the form of Weyburn (Pioneerof the Nile) and from a three-wide Happy Saver. The Chiefswood homebred Weyburn took the Alysheba along through a steady opening half-mile, but Olympiad was asked to creep closer by Junior Alvarado with three furlongs to race. Happy Saver had that move covered and, indeed, appeared to be going the better of the two as he turned into the stretch with a clear advantage. Olympiad braced for the fight and, once swapping over to his correct lead at about the eighth pole and despite being race-ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. aboard Happy Saver, found his second wind and proved a clear-cut winner in the finish. Title Ready (More Than Ready) rallied for third ahead of the hulking Weyburn, who looked to put a foot under the rail and bounced off the fence at the furlong grounds, albeit once a beaten horse.

A big-figure allowance winner at Keeneland last October, Olympiad was given a serious class test in the GI Cigar Mile H. Dec. 4 and did well to finish fourth. It's been nothing but blue skies since a stretch out to two turns this term, as the $700,000 Keeneland September buy thrashed Gulfstream allowance rivals by better than seven lengths Jan. 15 ahead of victories in the GIII Mineshaft S. Feb. 19 and Mar. 26 GII New Orleans Classic.

“It takes him awhile to get into his nice rhythm but then after that it's over,” Alvarado said. “Happy Saver was trying to do his job, riding tough on me trying not to give me much room for my horse to finish up his run. I knew there was a horse in there, but I tried to help a little bit, to keep my momentum going forward, but I like I said I wasn't doing anything, it was the horse on the outside putting the pressure on me.”

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.

Friday, Churchill Downs
ALYSHEBA S. PRESENTED BY SENTIENT JET-GII, $500,000, Churchill Downs, 5-6, 4yo/up, 1 1/16m, 1:41.60, ft.
1–OLYMPIAD, 120, c, 4, by Speightstown
                1st Dam: Tokyo Time (GSP, $249,177), by Medaglia d'Oro
                2nd Dam: Flying Passage, by A.P. Indy
                3rd Dam: Chic Shirine, by Mr. Prospector
($700,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable, LLC and LNJ Foxwoods; B-Emory A. Hamilton (KY); T-William I. Mott; J-Junior Alvarado. $303,800. Lifetime Record: 9-6-1-1, $952,240. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Happy Saver, 118, h, 5, Super Saver–Happy Week, by Distorted Humor. *TDN Rising Star* O/B-Wertheimer Et Frere    (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $98,000.
3–Title Ready, 118, h, 7, More Than Ready–Title Seeker, by Monarchos. O/B-Charles Fipke (KY); T-Dallas Stewart. $49,000.
Margins: 2HF, 1HF, 2HF. Odds: 0.90, 3.70, 25.80.
Also Ran: Weyburn, Soy Tapatio, Fulsome, Max Player. Scratched: Militarist.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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