The daily routine of the world's greatest athletes tends to become a ritual, a step-by-step process that builds their conditioning repeated over and over again with little to no change. For Olympic gold medalist Quincy Hall, that routine is becoming a bit different.
Hall started his April 8 morning not on the rubber track that carried him to world fame when winning the 2024 Olympics men's 400-meter event in Paris, but standing alongside the dirt track watching Thoroughbred racehorses train at Travis Durr Training Center in St. Matthews, S.C.
The experience, while new, is likely to become part of that daily ritual, as Hall has bought into his first racehorses through Legion Bloodstock's Legion Racing.
"I just left the track to watch the horses get a little workout in, now I'm going to go to the track and get my workout in," Hall said by phone Wednesday morning. "That's what it's all about. You can't just buy a horse and not put eyes on them, you've got to put eyes on them."
Having a passion for horses that dates back to his childhood, Hall has experience working with off-track Thoroughbreds that have retired to his 4x4 Stables near Swansea, S.C. When he was looking for the property, his realtor Samantha Crider asked about his Thoroughbreds and whether or not he was involved in racing. When he said no, she introduced him to Durr, whose training center was only 10-15 minutes away.
"I met Travis and went to see his training center and was like, 'Oh man, I got to have a piece of that,'" Hall said.
Hall started making regular visits to the training center and received a couple riding horses from Durr that weren't going to make the races. Finally, he sent Durr a message last week that he was ready to get involved from the ownership side.
"He's going to be great for the game," Durr said. "He really loves it. He's got a lot of enthusiasm, and he just loves horses in general."
Hall bought into a pair of 2-year-old sons of Curlin through Legion. Brinks, a chestnut out of 2021 Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Munnyfor Ro, was the $900,000 sale topper in the 2025 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale. Lithos, the first foal out of grade 2 winner and grade 1-placed Dream Lith, was a $500,000 purchase one month prior at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Legion Racing maintained 20% of both horses and sold the remaining 80% to high-stake clients. With their retained 20%, Legion's Kyle Zorn said the goal was to sell shares to those new to ownership, such as Hall.
Hall said he is still learning from Durr as far as what to look for in a quality racehorse but, so far, he is pleased with what he's seen.
"I like how hard they work," Hall said. "I saw a video of Lithos and Brinks running, it was just poetry."
"We bought them to be big-time horses, and so far they've showed up here at the training center like they can be," Durr said.
Lithos has already been moved to trainer Whit Beckman's barn at Keeneland, with Durr saying they expect him to be the more precocious of the two. Brinks, who will also be trained by Beckman, seems to be catching the eye in a big way in South Carolina.
"(Brinks) really seems special right now," Durr said.
"I was looking at Brinks today," Hall said. "He runs so effortlessly."
Although his racehorses will be running much farther than the 2-furlong event Hall won his gold medal competing in, he sees quite a few similarities in the sports, aside from both racing in an oval.
One of those similarities Hall sees is the competitive nature. He compared his gold medal triumph to the 2022 Kentucky Derby (G1) victory of Rich Strike , both refusing to give up and digging in to get up just on the wire.
"I feel like I'm looking for the same thing in a horse like that, too," Hall said. "I can't keep my horses accountable if I can't do that. I like to do this stuff myself, I work hard."
In that Olympic triumph, Hall broke from the starting block harder than normal and, about 80 meters in, popped his hamstring. Down the backstretch, he contemplated stopping, but didn't want anyone to see him quit. Instead, he decided to persevere—if he fell, at least he could show that he gave his all.
Yet, when they turned into the stretch, Hall found himself still in contention.
"I was like, 'Just keep going, just keep going,'" Hall recalled. "I think my mind went blank once I got into third."
Hall's determination carried him past Great Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith in the final strides for victory. Remarkably, despite the injury, he ran the world's fifth-fastest 400-meter time of :43.40.
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Win or lose, Hall hopes his horses will exhibit the same competitive drive.
"I'm looking for the horse to do the best that he can," Hall said. "As an athlete, I can't put that kind of stress on anybody; I know that kind of stress myself. I don't care how much we spend on a horse. We got to, at least, still be human and just be like, 'He did his best and gave us all he got.' We put the work into him, and that's all we can ask for."
Hall joins a growing list of big-name athletes who have recently gotten involved on the ownership side of Thoroughbred racing. Legion has teamed with one of those, World Series champion Jayson Werth, as he has launched Icon Racing. Werth has been an outspoken ambassador for the joy racing can bring retired athletes who still have competitive juices running through them, which was on full display when he won the 2024 Belmont Stakes (G1) with Dornoch .
"Athletes know athletes, and I think that's why you're seeing a gravitational pull for some of these athletes getting into horse racing," Zorn said. "Jayson will talk to anybody that will listen about how horse racing is the closest thing he's ever had to that feeling in major league sports."
At 27, Hall is certainly not close to retirement and continues to train for more success, but he can already recognize the important role Thoroughbred racing can play for him when it does come time to finally hang up the Adidas shoes.
"Us athletes, we get older," Hall said. "Our muscles don't work the same, our bones don't work the same. It will come to a time where we have to let that sport go. Getting into horse racing, it feels like you're still in the sport. Even though we can't get out there and run for them, the adrenaline and excitement is still coming. The game plan is still the same: we want to win."
When Hall completed his 400 meters of glory and was laying on the ground, resting his leg, he celebrated the joy as if he was making a snow angel. Should he win a race as a Thoroughbred owner, the celebration will be entirely different.
"You're going to see more than some snow angels, you're going to see some tears," Hall said. "I care about horses on a whole different level. I've been running track my whole life, so it's more like my job now. I would never stop loving track, but I feel like my horse career is a lot more fun and exciting for me."
That deep passion for horses started as child thanks to Hall's uncle, Tony, who was a western rider and owner of Hilltop Saddle Club in Kansas City, Mo. Taking care of horses and beginning to ride them around age 9, Hall developed a strong work ethic that has stayed with him throughout his life.
"Going out there, how much needier the horse was—it's not like a dog, a horse you need hands-on all the time," Hall said. "It was me caring for the horse all the time, and I fell in love with the horse."
Much of that strong work ethic can be attributed to Tony making Hall and his siblings work hard. Tony died while Hall was in college, and was the inspiration for establishing 4x4 Stables.
"We had to do a lot of work in order for us to be who we wanted to be," Hall said. "He didn't let us bow down to nothing, he was like, 'You're going to finish whatever you started.'"
Hall hopes he can pass that message and work ethic on through his own saddle club, which focuses on community service by teaching kids how to take care of them and providing trail rides. Retired Thoroughbred racehorses have always played a strong role.
"(Thoroughbreds) are a hot horse, but in the right hands they're just like puppy dogs," Hall said. "Their career is kind of rough, they have a lot to do in their careers. ... When you spend time just loving on them, kissing on them, stuff like that, I feel that builds character on the horse to be good with humans. Trail rides, get them around other breeds of horses, I feel like that's good for them, too. It's not always about running hard."
Being a professional athlete and managing his own 13-animal farm by himself doesn't allow much time for Hall to travel, but he is looking forward to the opportunity of attending a horse race in person for the first time when either Lithos or Brinks are ready for their debuts.
"I'm excited to be a part and have them take me there," Hall said.
