Two days after winning Horse of the Year, Champion Older Male and Champion Male Sprinter at the 43rd Sovereign Awards, Pink Lloyd proved he more than deserved the accolades when he set a track record at Woodbine on Opening Day (April 21), winning the six-furlong $100,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes in 1:08.05 with Rafael Hernandez in the irons.

“For him to go out there two days later and win and break the track record sure shows all the voters made the right choice,” said Pink Lloyd’s trainer, Robert Tiller.

Despite a three-month winter layoff, it was the ninth straight win for the Ontario Sired 6-year-old bred by John Carey of Shelburne, ON. Pink Lloyd, a gelded son of Old Forester out of the Great Gladiator mare Gladiator Queen, was undefeated in 2017 with all eight of his wins coming in stakes competition at Woodbine.

“(Pink Lloyd is) great for Toronto, he’s great for Ontario. He’s an Ontario Sired horse that’s beating everybody,” Tiller said. “Thirty years ago, he would have been a real hero. Nowadays, we don’t have the interest in the game that we had 30 years ago. To me, he’s a hero and always will be. I’ll never forget him. He’s just a wonderful animal and he’s a kind horse around the barn. He’s a very, very kind horse, very manageable around the barn. He’s very tough on the racetrack, but very manageable around the barn.”

Frank Di Giulio, Jr. – the most seasoned of Pink Lloyd’s owners that collectively call themselves the Entourage Stable after the hit HBO show – said Pink Lloyd has left him nearly speechless.

“He’s beyond words. I’ve talked to other people. You sort of run out of things to say about him. He keeps amazing you,” Di Giulio, Jr. said, adding he hopes Pink Lloyd, who was a $30,000 yearling purchase at the 2013 CTHS Canadian Premier Yearling Sale, can serve as an inspiration to anyone invested in the industry in Ontario.

“Anybody could have bought him… That’s kind of a price range that is reasonable, $30,000. I keep thinking, ‘How did we end up with him?’ Thank God the bidding stopped and we ended up with him,” Di Giulio, Jr. said of the horse he shares with his cousin, Victor Mele, and the other Entourage members: Ed Longo, John Peri and John Lucato.

“I love the fact that Pink Lloyd is Ontario Sired,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “The interesting thing is, three out of the last four Horses of the Year are out of Ontario sires — Lexie Lou is by Sligo Bay, last year’s winner, Caren, is by Society’s Chairman and now Pink Lloyd. So, you can buy and breed to an Ontario sire and get a Horse of the Year. You’ve got a good chance of doing that. One thing I wanted to say in my (Sovereign acceptance) speech — and I got a little caught up in other things — is I’m a supporter of the Ontario Sired program. I owned a share in Philanthropist and I own a share in Reload and try to support them. I think you have to support the local breeder or you’re not going to have the horse supply. Every good racing jurisdiction has to have a good breeding program. I truly believe that we need to support our breeders and give our breeders every chance to at least survive. More than survive, really. Surviving isn’t really enough.”

Tiller said he’s pleased for Carey, who not only bred Pink Lloyd, but stands Pink Lloyd’s sire — Canada’s leading stud Old Forester — at his T.C. Westmeath Stud Farm.

“There’s a rumour that John Carey, all they do is bring him breakfast, lunch and dinner and he sleeps besides the mailbox waiting for cheques,” Tiller said, laughing.

Pink Lloyd is now a winner of $707,254 lifetime with a record of 12-0-1 in 14 career starts. In 2017, he earned $512,636 with that perfect 8-for-8 record.

PATIENCE REQUIRED

Pink Lloyd was hardly an overnight sensation. It took him nearly three years to get to the races. Tiller said the gelding had “quite a few nagging injuries” as a young horse, but the trainer saw plenty of raw talent that allowed him to be patient.

“He overcame obstacles as a yearling, he overcame obstacles as a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old. We sent him back to the farm four or five times when we had him almost ready to run,” Tiller said. “We were going to give him the time. The owners, especially Frank Di Giulio, Jr., have been in this game for a long time. Every time I said ‘stop’ they stopped. It’s paid off for us before with other horses. Be patient. I knew from day one that he could run. He always showed he could run. He always wanted to go after horses and run by horses. If you put a horse two, three lengths in front of him, he wants to go after them, wants to go by them.”

To go from three years on injured reserve to become something of an iron horse that casts off all challengers is a remarkable transformation.

“I don’t want to sound boastful,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “But with a different trainer I don’t think he would have done it. Who knows? But I know what he is with all the problems he had with Bob (Tiller) and I find it hard to believe that he would have turned out the same way under different tutelage.”

That patience paid off in one of the most exciting weekends Tiller and Di Giulio, Jr. said they’ve ever had in horse racing going from Horse of the Year and two other Sovereign awards to the winner’s circle on Opening Day in track record time.

“It was pretty exciting,” Tiller said. “I’m 68 years old. I’ve been doing this for 52 years and I’ve had a lot of good horses over the years, won a lot of races and a lot of stakes.”

Di Giulio, Jr. said he, “can’t believe (Pink Lloyd) ran as well as he did the other day off what he had done and it being the first start of the year. It’s just so gratifying. If there was ever any doubt that he should have been Horse of the Year, I think that’s gone after his race the other day. Though, I don’t think there was much doubt. He won fairly handily in the voting, but there was talk before the voting that it might not happen.”

Tiller said right up until the week of the race he wasn’t sure he was even going to run Pink Lloyd in the Jacques Cartier.

“He’s had injuries throughout his career. At the end of last year, there was a minor one again. We weren’t even sure if we were going to run in his first start. I took one day at a time and one week at a time,” Tiller said.

Once the decision was made to race, Tiller said he knew Pink Lloyd would give his absolute best despite not having as much prep time as the trainer would have liked due to bad weather.

“He hates losing. He really does hate losing this horse,” Tiller said. “If he does get beaten — and all good things come to an end — he will bounce back and win again. He’s that kind of horse. As long as we can keep him sound enough to get him over there, he’s going to run his eyeballs out.”

That deep competitive streak and refusal to lose is what Di Giulio, Jr. said he loves most about Pink Lloyd.

“If you ever see him in the paddock and he comes in and it’s like any other day. He walks around with his head on the ground. He’s just as calm as any horse could be and you’ll start wondering if there’s something wrong with him, and then as soon as the jockey gets up on him, he starts to bounce. I think it’s the funniest thing for anybody that gets to go down there. He turns it off when he has to and once he knows he’s going out for a race he turns it on. He’s basically the perfect athlete that way. He doesn’t lose any energy getting all revved up and sweaty for a race. He just saves it and uses it when he has to,” Di Giulio, Jr. said.

“The other thing I love is his versatility because I think that’s what’s kept him undefeated. He can be anywhere in a race. If the horse wants to go in :21 and change, like he did the other day, he can lay second or third and come and get them. If everyone’s afraid to go to the lead, he can do it and control the pace. I think that’s his major asset that helped him stay undefeated — touch wood and, hopefully, we will continue to keep him undefeated as long as he stays sound and has good racing luck.”

SOVEREIGNS

As for the Sovereigns, Di Giulio, Jr. said he figured winning eight of the nine main-track sprints cinched Pink Lloyd the Male Sprinter award and that there was a good chance at the Older Horse award. He said he wasn’t as confident Pink Lloyd would win Horse of the Year over stellar mares Ami’s Mesa and Holy Helena.

“One of them (Ami’s Mesa) went undefeated other than finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup and (Holy Helena) won the Oaks and the Plate. This makes (Pink Lloyd’s) win even more gratifying because it’s not like he beat a weak field. He beat two very nice fillies. It was a magical evening. It was something we hoped for, but you never know until that actually happens,” Di Giulio, Jr. said.

“At the end of the day, we’re very honoured and very thrilled to be able to sweep all three,” Tiller added.

It is the second Horse of the Year award for Di Giulio, Jr. and his father who won the 2001 title — along with Champion Three-Year-Old Male — with Win City.

Di Giulio, Jr. said winning Horse of the Year and the other Sovereign Awards with Pink Lloyd left a deep impression on the other members of the Entourage Stable.

“I think to them it means quite a bit. They haven’t owned nearly as many horses as I have. So, I think they’re having a ton of fun with him, that’s for sure,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “I hate to say I don’t know if I’ll ever have another one like him, but I probably won’t because he’s just so good and he just keeps doing what he does. He seems to do it fairly easily. As long as the horse stays sound — which is the thing everybody worries about — I hope he can go on and keep running until he’s seven or eight. He got a late start to his career, so it’s hard to believe he’s six right now. You think about him being a 4-year-old or something, but he’s six. You just keep your fingers crossed and hope he stays sound and hope we can keep enjoying him.”

It helps, said Tiller, that Pink Lloyd has a great team of people around him, including assistant trainer Tommy Lottridge and caretaker Michelle Gibson.

DREAMING BIG

As for what’s next for Pink Lloyd, look for him to follow a similar script to last year and remain at Woodbine and hit many of the same stakes as 2017. He is already a repeat winner in the Jacques Cartier. If the horse stays healthy and continues to have success, Di Giulio, Jr. said there could be a bigger plan for Pink Lloyd down the line.

“At one point, maybe we’ll have to make a decision if we want to test deeper waters, but, for now, we’re staying here. It’s so much easier on him and on everything. When you’re looking at these races in the face, it’s so hard to pass them up,” Di Giulio, Jr. said.

When pressed for his wildest dream, Di Giulio, Jr. didn’t hesitate.

“The wildest dream is the Breeders’ Cup,” Di Giulio, Jr. said. “I’m not wanting to let myself go that far, yet, but that’s my wildest dream. It’s a little more feasible than last year because it was California last year and it’s in Kentucky this year. But, the other thing is, he’s not eligible.”

Tiller said he too would love to test Pink Lloyd in the Breeders’ Cup, but it’s a really impractical dream for now.

“You know there’s a little buzz here and there with this Twitter-Twatter thing in this new world,” Tiller said, “‘Why don’t you go to the Breeders’ Cup. Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that?’ First of all, if we go to the Breeders’ Cup, I want to open up a GoFundMe, because it’s going to cost us $250,000 U.S. to run him in the Breeders’ Cup. So, I’d like everyone to know it’s not that simple. If somebody wants to donate $250,000 U.S., we will run him in the Breeders’ Cup. As Mr. Di Giulio has said, ‘That doesn’t seem like a very good business decision.’”

Di Giulio, Jr. then offered another possible solution.

“Unless we find a win-and-you’re-in race that he can win,” he said.

He’s not ruling it in, but he’s not quite ruling it out, either. You can almost see the dreams forming in his head about just how far Pink Lloyd might go.