Olympia a losing Kentucky Derby favorite who still won all over

Feb 04, 2025 Vance Hanson/Brisnet.com

The late Fred W. Hooper virtually started at the top in Thoroughbred owning and breeding in the 1940s and stayed there until his death in 2000 at the age of 102. Among the first batch of yearlings Hooper acquired was a colt by Sir Gallahad III whom he eventually named in honor of his son. That was Hoop Jr., who dominated the 1945 Kentucky Derby by six lengths.

Hooper never won another Kentucky Derby in three attempts, coming closest in 1961 when Crozier was beaten less than a length by Carry Back. While Hoop Jr. and Crozier were the second betting choices in their respective Derbies, the Hooper-owned colt that was even more widely expected to win the Derby but didn't was a blazingly fast horse named Olympia.

Little remembered today except by students of pedigrees, Olympia belongs to an exclusive club that few others will join in the foreseeable future. When Olympia broke from the gate in the 1949 Kentucky Derby, he was so heavily supported that he started at odds of 4-5. But the 1 1/4-mile distance proved beyond the scope of Olympia, who finished 14 lengths behind Ponder in sixth.

Olympia is one of seven odds-on favorites to lose the Derby in the last century, a list that includes Hall of Fame inductees Bimelech, Native Dancer, and Easy Goer, as well as juvenile champions Honest Pleasure and Arazi. The latter in 1992 was the most recent Derby favorite to start at less-than-even money, and in this era of up to 20 individual betting interests, the chances of another horse getting such widespread backing are increasingly slim.

Far more interesting about Olympia than being in such rarified company is the route he took to be so highly regarded at Churchill Downs. In an era when transporting horses by air was in its infancy and thus limited to either train or van, Olympia managed to make multiple cross-country trips before the Derby and won major preps in all parts of the country.

After winning three stakes as a two-year-old including the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, Olympia began his winter preparation for the Derby in Hooper's adopted home state of Florida. But before he ran his first official race of the season, Olympia was pitted against a four-year-old Quarter Horse filly named Stella Moore in a two-furlong exhibition match race at Tropical Park on Jan. 5, 1949.

Maintaining a straight course after Stella Moore bore out at the start, Olympia opened up a one-length lead midway through the dash. But that margin was gradually whittled down as Stella Moore surged through the final furlong. At the finish, though, it was Olympia in front by a head in a time of :22 3/5.

Outrunning a Quarter Horse in early January perhaps is not a reliable indicator of potential success over 1 1/4 miles four months later. But Olympia did plenty in the interim to give his backers other avenues of hope. After finishing second in his official season debut in the six-furlong Hibiscus S. at Hialeah, Olympia was shipped west to Santa Anita for two starts. He first won the Santa Felipe S., then contested at seven furlongs, and next finished second in the nine-furlong Santa Anita Derby.

Olympia would not meet defeat again until the Kentucky Derby. Shipped back to Florida, Olympia won Hialeah's signature Derby prep, the Flamingo S., over 1 1/8 miles. After a one-month break, Olympia crammed three starts into a three-week window at the Jamaica track in New York. After winning the six-furlong Experimental Free H. #1 and 1 1/16-mile Experimental Free H. #2 by a combined 15 lengths, Olympia clung to a neck victory in the 1 1/16-mile Wood Memorial by a neck over Palestinian.

Four days before the Kentucky Derby, Olympia turned in his final prep in the one-mile Derby Trial at Churchill Downs. He won in his customary wire-to-wire fashion by 1 1/4 lengths from Ponder, who would turn the tables 96 hours later with a three-length victory in the Derby. Third in the Derby Trial was Capot, who wound up second to Ponder that Saturday but later won the Preakness S. and Belmont S. en route to Horse of the Year honors.

Olympia was rarely tried beyond sprint distances again. He would win four more stakes before his retirement, the most prestigious being the one-mile Withers S. at Belmont Park in his first start after the Kentucky Derby.

As a stallion Olympia was more than respectable, siring 12% stakes winners from foals. These included two champions on the flat: Decathlon won the sprint title in both 1956 and 1957, while Pucker Up was voted champion older mare in 1957. Olympia even sired a champion steeplechaser, 1970 honoree Top Bid.

Olympia's bloodline remained an important part of Hooper's breeding operation for generations. In addition to being the broodmare sire of Crozier and Admiral's Voyage, who was Hooper's last Derby starter in 1962 after victories in the Louisiana Derby and Wood Memorial, Olympia was also the broodmare sire of Quaze, who reared Hall of Fame filly Susan's Girl as well as Kentucky Oaks (G2) and Alabama (G1) heroine Quaze Quilt.

Olympia died at the age of 28 in 1974, the same year he led the broodmare sire list. In addition to Susan's Girl, he was aided that season by grandsons True Knight, a multiple Grade 1 winner, and the Hooper-owned Tri Jet, who in winning the Whitney (G2) at Saratoga set a track record for 1 1/8 miles that lasted more than three decades. Hooper's other Hall of Fame runner, 1980s star Precisionist, was inbred 3×4 to Olympia.

Although Olympia did not pass his most important test on the racetrack, he was one of countless examples of the Kentucky Derby producing winners besides the horse who crosses the finish line first.