For many in racing, Pink Lloyd (Old Forester) would be a horse of a lifetime. A competitor that year after year would show up and give his best, while continuing to perform at a high level. And for three-time Sovereign Award recipient and Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Robert Tiller, it is no different.
“He's just the most amazing horse I've ever been around,” said Tiller. “I've won probably around 160 stakes races, and I've had some pretty good horses, but nothing ever like him. To be able to beat the best at the age of nine and to win 26 stakes, that's unheard of. At least not up here. What do you do for an encore?”
Responsible for a quartet of Woodbine training titles (1994, 1997, 2001, and 2003), a Canadian Classic winner (Win City, 2001 Horse of the Year), juvenile champions Rare Friend (2001) and Simply Lovely (2004) and millionaire Brass in Pocket, a Sovereign award finalist in 2003, the 72-year-old also trained a pair of Canadian champion female sprinters: Indian Apple Is in 2010 and River Maid in 2016. A regular fixture on the Canadian racing stage for over five decades, Tiller achieved yet another career high on June 19, 2020, recording his 2,000th career victory with Have a Souper Day (Souper Speedy).
“I was something of a 'Wonderboy' in those days when I first got going,” the Brampton resident said with a chuckle. “I came in and started claiming horses and had some good clients and things really took off quickly. We went through a period when everything was great, but then the roof kind of caved in. But over the last 30 years, we've had some top-caliber horses and achieved things with them that I'm proud of.”
A native of Amsterdam, Holland, Tiller immigrated with his family to Ontario at age 12 and it wasn't long before the racetrack came calling. Employed as a hot walker for John Calhoun at Woodbine Racetrack at 16, he later filled the same position for trainer Glenn Magnusson before becoming the point man for the latter trainer's Blue Bonnets-based string in Montreal, Quebec. After spending a brief stint at Finger Lakes, Tiller returned to Woodbine, securing his own license at 21. During his initial season, he captured his first win with Royal Greek Ship before rounding out the 1972 season with 21 victories. Continuing to grow over the next two seasons, he closed out 48 wins in 1974. As with many trainers, Tiller started off with an abundance of claiming horses, however, quickly started to show his ability with higher-caliber animals. Among them was Near the High Sea, who represented Tiller in his first Canadian Classic in the 1975 Queen's Plate. Overlooked at long odds, he finished second behind winner and subsequent Canadian Hall of Famer L'Enjoleur.
And while claimers made up a good portion of his early stable, Tiller explained it didn't take long to branch into a higher level.
“I had a lot of claiming horses early on, but I also bought and sold a lot of horses, too,” he recalled. “From the beginning, I just loved the whole game. Buying young horses and developing them–it's a lot tougher than claiming them, in my opinion. We seemed to do well with whatever we happened to have at the moment. I think in the time I've been training, I've covered pretty much every aspect of the business.”
Robert Tiller after winning his 2,000th career victory | Michael Burns Photo
'Pink' Panther
Offered at the 2013 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's Canadian Premier Yearling Sale, Pink Lloyd was secured for $30,000, along with five others, for a partnership including longtime client, Frank Di Giulio, Jr., who, in tandem with his father Frank Sr., also benefitted from Tiller's work with claimer-turned-Grade II winner Domasca Dan. Although two of those 2013 purchases never made it to the races, three of them ended up winning races and the sixth, of course, would go down in the history books.
“He looked like a very athletic horse and we were lucky enough to buy him,” said Tiller. “Early on, we got the call from the farm telling us he was sore. Since nothing really showed up on his X-rays, we just decided to just give him time off. These little things would show up and he'd be lame, but we couldn't really pinpoint anything major, so we just gave him more and more time. That's my philosophy, if a horse needs time, just give it to them. And I am very fortunate to have very patient owners. He's probably one of the best managed horses in Canada and that has a lot to do with the ownership.”
Making his belated debut at age four for Entourage Stable, Pink Lloyd, cheekily named after a character on the hit show 'Entourage' while playing on the famed rock band, won his first three Woodbine starts in 2016, but failed to take the next step up to stakes company through the fall of that season. Given some time off to work out a few kinks, namely an overly intense work ethic that often played to the gelding's disadvantage, Pink Lloyd returned the following April and reeled off six consecutive stakes victories, highlighted by graded wins in Woodbine's GII Kennedy Road S. and GIII Virgil S. Punctuating his sparkling undefeated 2017 season with a pair of Sovereign Awards as Canadian Champion Horse of the Year and Canadian Champion Male Sprinter, the chestnut picked up where he left off in 2018. Annexing his first three starts of the new season, he concluded his 5-year-old campaign with five stakes wins from eight starts, and once again was named the leading male sprinter in the country.
Pink Lloyd rounding out his career by winning his third GII Kennedy Road S. Nov. 27 | Michael Burns Photo
“We had a few rough patches with him early on,” explained Tiller. “He could be pretty head strong and actually broke through the gate at one time. And he bled once and we stopped on him for six months after that. He also has some foot issues through most his career. There were scary times when we thought it was all over. But he just always came back. He always came back.”
Tasting defeat only once from seven starts in 2019 and again from five starts in 2020, Pink Lloyd kicked off the current season with a pair of runner-up efforts in the GIII Jacques Cartier S. and GIII Vigil S.–a race he won on four prior occasions. Showing the tenacity that had already earned him an armful of Sovereign Awards, the champion sprinter took his next three, beginning with the GIII Bold Venture S. in September and the Nov. 7 Ontario Jockey Club S. before rounding out his illustrious career while securing his third GII Kennedy Road S. win Nov. 27. After a career that spanned six seasons, the Ontario-bred was retired with 29 victories–26 earned at the stakes level–from 38 career starts and earnings of $1,884,584.
“He got his two to three months off every winter, and I think that really helped him,” said Tiller. “But it is very difficult to keep a horse going year after year. Since I'm at Woodbine year round, you get all the seasons up here: intense summer heat and snow in the winter and everything in between. And we also had a pandemic in the middle of all that. To be able to keep winning like the way he did, it's just amazing. This horse has done it all.”
Asked if he thought Pink Lloyd would have been able to achieve the longevity for over six seasons with another trainer, Tiller laughed, “Well, the fact that I've been doing this about 50 years probably helped. I've had several people say that to me of late, and I don't like to think this is just my ego talking, but I was given a truly horse wonderful horse. I also think the ownership really helped me. I have a 35-year relationship with the Di Giulio family, and while we would talk about everything relating to the horse, they always left the final decision to me. And that really helped, especially with this horse.”
Moving on to the next phase in his life, Pink Lloyd received a hero's welcome upon his arrival at his new home, LongRun's 100-acre property in Erin, Ontario in early December.
“I just saw him at LongRun and he's so happy up there,” said Tiller. “He's looking good and adjusting very well.”
While the entire Tiller team rejoices in the gelding's moving on to enjoy his senior years in a more tranquil setting, the departure of the perennial champion has left a void in both the Tiller barn and the entire team's hearts.
“When we put him on the van, it was very emotional,” recalled Tiller. “Michelle Gibson, who groomed the horse for six years, was very emotional. We all were. We are quite sad, but there is also a bit of relief too, because some would be looking for something to be wrong or for him to fail. For him to go out a winner like that was such a relief. We have mixed feelings. We'll really miss him in the springtime when he doesn't come back in from his winter vacation. We've prepped ourselves for this. All good things come to an end. And the only way I felt good about stopping on him was because he retired while he was still on top. This whole experience was so very special.”
Pink Lloyd in the familiar Woodbine winner's circle, Tiller far right | Michael Burns Photo
Good People, Good Horses
One of only six trainers with over $1 million in seasonal earnings at Woodbine in 2021, Tiller–who concluded the recent Woodbine season in fifth overall–registered 20 wins, 29 seconds and 29 thirds, for a 38% in-the-money strike rate.
“You're only as good as your horses,” he said. “You also need good owners and good help. I've been fortunate enough to have had seven people who have been with me for over 30 years and I don't think many people can say that at Woodbine or anywhere else. It's a difficult business. You have to work hard and you have to love it. But the rewards can be very high. So if you love it and want to work hard, go for it. If not, maybe look at a career with computers.”
With the vast majority of Tiller's racing stock comprised of homebreds, the horseman typically maintains a racing team ranging from 30 to 45 head. And while it's tough to compete head-to-head with trainers whose string can amount to twice or three times that number (in some cases much more), Tiller remains pragmatic about the disparity among his peers.
“I'm a hands-on horseman,” he stated. “I've spent most of my life on my hands and knees in stalls feeling horses' legs and watching them jog up and down. Other trainers who have a lot more horses can't really get their eyes or hands on every animal. I'm not knocking it. They've made it work for them and have been very successful. I was brought up in a different time. If you had 40 horses, that was a lot of horses. You were always present on the grounds. But for a lot of trainers, that has totally changed. They do it differently than I like to do it. That's all.”
He added, “Regardless of the number of horses you have, you're only as good as your horse. I never had the type of horse that somebody would pay $200,000-$300,000 for. I was always the little guy's trainer. But we made it work.”
And despite facing runners from some of the biggest and most loaded equine arsenals in North America, it appeared that the 2021 season did in fact prove to be the year of the little guy. The stars aligned and a $30,000 Canadian-bred rose to the top of the ranks and took his trainer and connections on a ride of a lifetime.
“I'm getting a little long in the tooth, but he didn't seem to get long in the tooth,” Tiller laughed. “We are so proud of him and so in love with him.”
Might another sprint championship be in the offing?
“There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and Pink Lloyd winning the title as [Canada's] best sprinter,” he laughed. “I think he should be, he deserves to be and I believe he will be the outstanding sprinter. Anything else is icing on the cake.”
Tiller admits while the gelding's departure early this month was very hard, the champion's absence will really hit home later this spring when he would have been due to return from his winter spell. And while he will be physically absent, Pink Lloyd will certainly be remembered for the things that set him apart from the rest.
“The heart, the courage and the desire to win, he had it all,” said Tiller. “I'll never forget him.”
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