Olympic Runner

Olympic Runner, a Gio Ponti gelding owned by Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse, broke his maiden in his second career start on Jan. 26, 2019, taking a 1/16-mile race on a sloppy main track at Gulfstream Park by 5 ¾ lengths. He then raced two more times on dirt with no success before Casse shipped him to Woodbine to try its all-weather main track. Olympic Runner won his second start there in the summer of 2019 and then won his first stakes race, the listed King Corrie Stakes in July.

The gelding raced at Woodbine for eight more starts through October 2020 but did not win a race; however, he twice finished second in Grade 3 stakes. During winter 2020-21, Casse shipped Olympic Runner to several tracks in the U.S., and he had the most success at Gulfstream where he won an allowance race on turf and then finished second by a neck in the Grade 2 Canadian Turf Stakes on grass.

By summer 2021, Olympic Runner was back at Woodbine. He showed his patented late kick in his return start but once again came up a neck short in a graded stakes, losing the Grade 2 Connaught Cup on turf by a neck to Avie’s Flatter. Finally, Olympic Runner broke through with his first graded stakes victory in his next start. He stalked the pace in the one-mile Grade 2 King Edward Stakes on Aug. 15 and took command in the final sixteenth of a mile to win by 1 ½ lengths. Olympic Runner set a Woodbine course record time of 1:31.73 for one mile on turf in the King Edward.