The undefeated Hungarian sprinter Overdose bids farewell to Budapest’s Kincsem Park on Sunday when he faces eight rivals in the Eletbiztosito Dij, a five-furlong Hungarian listed race worth $18,300. The Budapest Bullet, as he is affectionately known, Overdose is using this minor event as a springboard to bigger things in Germany and France in an attempt to prove that he is the best sprinter in Europe.
The winner of all 13 of his official starts during his star-crossed career, Overdose returned from an injury-enforced 15-month absence on July 18 to win a five-furlong listed race in Bratislava by a rather comfortable half-length. His owner, Zoltan Mikoczy, decided that Overdose,a 5-year-old son of Starborough who suffers from chronically sore feet, needed another tightener, and so Overdose runs in this before heading to Baden-Baden on Aug. 29 for Germany’s championship sprint race, the six-furlong, Group 2 Goldene Peitsche, which he won in 2008.
But it is the five-furlong, Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp that is Overdose’s ultimate goal, and one that his connections are targeting with a vengeance. For it was in that race on Arc Day two years ago that Overdose crossed the line four lengths in front, only to have the race declared void when the gate holding Fleeting Spirit failed to open. Mikoczy opted not to run Overdose in the do-over, but the bitter taste of that day’s events has never left him.
Officially trained by Jozef Roszival in Budapest, but actually trained by Sandor Ribarszki at Hoppegarten in Berlin, Overdose will be ridden on Sunday by the Czech-based Englishman Gary Hind, who should not have too much trouble guiding him to victory.
