When Pink Lloyd won his career debut on Aug. 28, 2016 as a 4-year-old, he ran his six furlongs in fast time, 1:09.01 for an 88 Beyer Speed Figure. He looked like he was going to be a good one for his patient connections of Entourage Stable and Robert Tiller.
It would have been hard to believe, however, what kind of career he would go on to through the next five years. Hall of Fame trainer Tiller had an inkling, though.
These were the words from Tiller following Pink Lloyd’s first stakes win, the 2017 Jacques Cartier Stakes in April, his sixth career race when he was 5 years old:
He made us wait. He’s a very good horse and it was tough to get to this race,” said Tiller. “He’s a detail horse and tough to get around the racetrack. The exercise rider does a wonderful job with him. Touch wood this is his first really sound year. I believe he’s a very good horse. I really do. He’s convinced me today.”
Thirty more starts and two undefeated seasons, plus a host of Sovereign Awards later, PINK LLOYD will be retired from racing following his final start in the Nov. 26 Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) worth $175,000. It is a race he has won twice.
Tiller has been in talks with LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society for nearly a year, solidifying a home for the multiple champion, one of the greatest sprinters this country has ever seen.
Through the years Pink Lloyd has won 25 stakes races, 10 of them graded, placed in three others and his record line reads 28 wins in 36 races and over $2.1 million in Canadian dollars. All of his races were sprints on Tapeta. He was a $30,000 yearling purchase by Entourage’s headline owner Frank DiGiulio Jr, who shares ownership of the lanky chestnut son of Old Forester – Gladiator Queen by Great Gladiator with Ed Longo, John Lucato, John Peri, and Victor Mele. John Carey, owner of T C Westmeath Stud in Shelburne, bred Pink Lloyd.
All the superlatives have been used again and again during this great gelding’s career; there is really not much more to say. His longevity can be accredited to Tiller, the ‘detail man’, who has had to deal with plenty of nagging infirmities and quirks with the gelding. There was a short time when the gelding decide to jump up at the start of his races, and once he was declared a non-starter.
The gelding has been cared for by grooms Kris Pion, for the first few years of his career, and most recently, Michelle Gibson. Exercise rider Rafael Sanchez has played a big role, as well as assistant trainer Tom Lottridge. Eurico Rosa da Silva rode ‘Pinkie’ to many wins and his current rider is Rafael Hernandez.
Pink Lloyd, at the age of nine, has won two straight stakes races, showing his grit and speed, and possibly could have won the Grade 3 Vigil in July but he checked hard and had to settle for second behind the younger sprinter Souper Stonehenge.
And Souper Stonehenge, trained by Mark Casse, is the horse Pink Lloyd will have to get past to win his final race of his career Saturday. Souper Stonehenge, a 5-year-old by Speightstown, has beaten Pink Lloyd in all three of their meetings, has won two graded sprint stakes this year and could grab the Sovereign Award for Champion Sprinter away from the king in 2021.
The Casse gelding has been away since August when a foot abscess sidelined him, but he has been blazing around in the mornings in his workouts.
There are eight rivals for Pink Lloyd in total in the Kennedy Road, fittingly a race named after a great Canadian racehorse, and no doubt there will be a race named after Pinkie soon.
Pinkie will get to settle in at LongRun’s lavish farm in Hillsburgh, ON, one of the former Woodlands Farms, where visitors can go and visit him.
The Kennedy Road is race 8 on Saturday with a post time of 4:40 p.m.
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