The smash hit of a chart-topping year for Pink Lloyd came on June 10 at Woodbine Racetrack when the five-year-old gelding trashed the starting gate like it was a hotel room.
“He literally broke the gate when he broke through it,” said part-owner Frank Di Giulio, Jr. “They had to take that gate out and get a new one. From what I understand, he broke the latch off.”
A wise old punter told Pink Lloyd’s trainer, Bob Tiller, that, “99 times out of 100,” a horse will lose after bursting through the gate early and forcing a restart. What that bettor didn’t know was that for Di Giulio and Tiller and the other connections, Pink Lloyd was what Di Giulio calls that, “1 in 1,000 horse. He’s the best sprinter we’ve ever owned.”