Entourage Stable’s Pink Lloyd, Canada’s reigning Horse of the Year, returned to form with a powerful stretch run to defend his title in Sunday’s $150,000 Grade 3 Vigil Stakes, at Woodbine.
Trained by Robert Tiller, the six-year-old Old Forester-Gladiator Queen chestnut reeled off a remarkable 11-race win streak at Woodbine that spanned from April 15, 2017 with a score in the Jacques Cartier Stakes through June 3, 2018 when taking the Achievement Stakes. Graded stakes wins through that period came in the Grade 3 Vigil and Grade 2 Kennedy Road as Pink Lloyd picked up year-end honours as champion Sprinter, Older Horse and Horse of the Year.
However, last time out, Pink Lloyd burst quickly out of the gate and got caught up in a speed duel with Boreal Spirit before fading to third in the 6 1/2-furlong Shepperton Stakes won by a last-to-first Kingsport. In the days following that effort, Tiller noted that Pink Lloyd spiked a temperature.