Olympiad Targeting Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga

While Olympiad 's first start at Saratoga Race Course this season did not go as planned, the multiple grade 2 winner could resurface in another grade 1 stakes before the 40-day meet ends.

Trainer Bill Mott said Aug. 14 that the son of Speightstown   is being pointed toward the Sept. 3 $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at the Spa, a 1 1/4-mile test that awards the winner a free spot in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).

"It's absolutely on the table," Mott said.

Olympiad, owned by Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable, and LNJ Foxwoods, brought a five-race win streak (three of them in grade 2 stakes) into the 1 1/8-mile Whitney Stakes (G1) at the Spa and was the 9-5 second choice in a field of five. But running over a good, sealed racetrack, he never fired in the Aug. 6 stakes and finished fourth, about 9 1/2 lengths behind the victorious Life Is Good .

"He had a bad day. I don't know what else to say," Mott said about the Whitney. "I don't know if it was the heat or whatever. It was a hot, muggy day, but I have no major excuse to offer for the Whitney. Though if you're a speed handicapper and look at the race, it came up a fast race."

Bred by Emory A. Hamilton out of the Medaglia d'Oro   mare Tokyo Time, the 4-year-old Olympiad has won 7 of 11 starts with earnings of $1,472,560. The $700,000 purchase for Solis/Litt Bloodstock from the Gainesway consignment at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale was ranked seventh in this week's National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top 10 poll.

Among the other top-level older horses who could possibly wind up in the JCGC are Americanrevolution , who was scratched from the Whitney, Dynamic One , First Captain , and Hot Rod Charlie .