PATCHES O’HOULIHAN knew the script.
The Champion Male Sprinter of 2023, despite having a minor setback in training in late spring, seemed to know he had to put on a show in his return in Sunday’s PINK LLOYD STAKES at Woodbine. After all, the stakes race was named after his famous stablemate, the five-time Champion Sprinter now retired to a life of leisure at LongRun Retirement.
Backed by superior training by Bob Tiller, Patches O’Houlihan was more than ready as he streaked to a 6-length win in the 6 furlong Tapeta sprint under his new rider Sofia Vives. Frank DiGiulio’s homebred bay gelding stopped the clock in a smart 1:09.13.
Surprisingly, the bettors did not favour the champion at 2.15-to-1 as the masses leaned towards optional claiming/allowance winner Reload’s Rascal making his first stakes start. That gelding finished last.
Second in the Pink Lloyd was Souped Up, a vastly improved four-year-old for Linda Theil and Harri Hosein and trainer Ron Sadler. Another longshot, Jamar Gibson’s Rat Portage, finished third for trainer Sylvester Olivierre.
The Pink Lloyd Stakes, in its second running, is an Ontario sire stakes race named for the great sprinter who was also trained by Tiller and co-owned by DiGiulio. It seems as if Patches has quickly picked up the baton from Pinkie.
“He had an issue that was very time-consuming, and I wasn’t sure we should even run him in this race,” said Tiller. “He proved me wrong. He is not a horse who talks to you in the morning. He will not work good. You are really in trouble with him. You don’t where you stand with him.”
“Coming back like that… this is amazing to win the Pink Lloyd Stakes. You can’t write this kind of script in Hollywood.”
Patches O’Houlihan has won 8 of 10 races and $392,228. He is by top Ontario stallion Reload from the DiGiulio mare Maythefourthbwithu (who cost $3,500 as a yearling) by Silent Name (Jpn). You can read more about his background here.
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Sunday was another good day for Northern Dawn Stable’s Reload, who has sired 26 winners already in 2024. In fact, the stallion had five juveniles in race 3 and they finished 1, 2, 3, 4 in the eight-horse field.
KEKOA, making his second career start in the optional claiming/maiden event, was a professional winner for trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who co-owns with Stephan and Rita Shefsky, Willy and Toby Kruh and Dan Vella. A $57,000 yearling purchase from the CTHS Ontario Premier Sale last August, Kekoa is from the mare Henley Hill (GB), a daughter of Dansili (GB).
Kekoa’s third dam is the blue hen mare TOUSSAUD, dam of Grade 1 winners Empire Maker, Chisellinf, Chester House and Honest Lady plus Grade 2 winner Decarchy. Toussaud was also a Grade 1 winner.
Kekoa was bred in Ontario by Mark Dodson, who purchased the mare in February 2021 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Mixed Sale for $45,000.
No doubt grass racing will be in Kekoa’s future.
Kekoa defeated other Reload offspring Tiernan, owned by Northern Dawn and Krista Cole, Magic Power, owned by RCC Racing and Zone Control, owned by True North Stable.
The other split of the maiden optional dash ($40,000) was won by AWESOME RAINBOW, an Old Forester – Awesomeendswithme by Overanalyze colt, bred by Northern Dawn, who cost just $14,000 at the CTHS sale last year. Rainbow Stables owns the colt and Norm McKnight trains. The white-faced youngster showed plenty of grit in this debut as he barged between horses in deep stretch to win under Sahin Civaci.
Northern Dawn’s Sherry McLean purchased Awesomeendswithme for $8,000 as a weanling in 2015.
Awesome Rainbow’s rider, Civaci, put on a clinic in that two-year-old’s victory. See the replay below.
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Trainer SCOTT FAIRLIE is now three-for-seven in 2024 following the 35-to-1 score by FRAC RIGHT in race 2 on Sunday. The Frac Daddy three-year-old led all the way through 6 furlongs on the E P Taylor turf course, winning in 1:08.73 under Justin Stein for Ace Racing and Inferno Racing. Fairlie, who has won over 1,000 races but started just one horse last year as a trainer, has been assisted by Robbie Martin this year, a former assistant to Mike Keogh.
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