Ontario Jockey Club | Horse Racing Free Tips

Hernandez Heaps Praise On ‘Unbelievable’ Pink Lloyd Ahead Of Ontario Jockey Club

Multiple stakes winner and Canadian champion Pink Lloyd takes on five rivals in Sunday's $100,000 Ontario Jockey Club Stakes at Woodbine.

Bred in Ontario by John Carey and owned by Entourage Stable, the chestnut gelding, a 27-time winner, 24 of them stakes, arrives at the six-furlong Tapeta event for Ontario-sired three-year olds and up off his second straight Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes score.

Trained by Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Robert Tiller, the nine-year-old son of Old Forester will once again have Rafael Hernandez in the irons.

“This horse, he's really strong and he can do anything you want from him,” said Hernandez. “He can get you in a good spot, but if you get into a tough spot, he can always find a way out. Last time, in the Bold Venture, there didn't appear to be much speed in the race. Was someone going to come and try to go with him fast early and then I wouldn't have anything left in the end, or were they thinking that he's a veteran horse and we'll let him go? Another horse tried to go for the lead, but he couldn't get to him. So, we had the lead and we went from there.”

A seven-time Sovereign Award recipient, including 2017 Horse of the Year honours, Pink Lloyd continues to be a fan favourite at the Toronto oval and beyond.

Hernandez, a lifetime winner of nearly 2,800 races, is one of Pink Lloyd's proudest supporters.

“He has so many stakes and he's a favourite horse of everybody, not just for me, not just for Bob Tiller, not just for his owner, but for the racetrack. I know people come to Woodbine just to see him.”

Being the pilot of Pink Lloyd is the ultimate adrenaline rush, said Hernandez.

“When you ride him, you don't feel yourself going fast because he spends so much time in the air. He has a big, big stride. He's unbelievable… he's push button. When you're in a race car and you push the nose and say, 'Bye-bye,' that's him. When you turn for home and push the button, it's, 'Bye-bye, come and get me.'”

Pink Lloyd's Sovereign bounty includes four consecutive (2017-2020) champion male sprinter trophies in and a pair of champion older male titles in 2017 and 2019.

He's recorded four consecutive victories in the Vigil Stakes and Jacques Cartier Stakes, along with three triumphs in both the Shepperton and Kenora.

Hernandez, who has 118 career stakes victories, hopes Pink Lloyd can add his lofty list of successes this Sunday.

“I talk to him, even before the race starts. I tell him, 'You take me where you want to go and do your thing. I'm going to wait for you to switch your lead and let you go.' When we go in the gate, I tell him to relax. He wants to go, but I take a hold and say, 'Not yet. Just hold on.' After the wire, we both breathe and I tell him, 'We did it, buddy. Good job.' Right now, I'm thinking about riding him in the race and it makes me smile. Every time I talk about him in an interview after the race, I tell them I am just a passenger. You need the horse to win the race. You can't say that you won the race. You need a good driver. With this horse, I am happy to be the driver.”

First post for Sunday's 10-race card is 12:55 p.m. The Ontario Jockey Club goes as race three. Fans can watch and wager on all the action with HPIbet.com and the Dark Horse Bets app.

$100,000 ONTARIO JOCKEY CLUB STAKES

Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer

1 – Told It All – Daisuke Fukumoto – Suzanne Drake

2 – Pink Lloyd – Rafael Hernandez – Robert Tiller

3 – Magical Man – Steven Bahen – Gail Hughes

4 – Souper Hot – Shaun Bridgmohan – Mike Mattine

5 – Dun Drum – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Ian Black

6 – Forester's Fortune – Patrick Husbands – Rodney Barrow

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Woodbine Opening Day a Record Setter

Woodbine opened its 2021 season Saturday with an opening-day record handle of $6,912,477. Opening day was delayed two months due to the pandemic. The $6.9-million handle broke the previous opening-day handle record of $5.5 million set in 2020, which was also had a delayed opening day due to the pandemic. Saturday's eighth race (14-horse, mile, maiden allowance on the E.P. Taylor turf course) generated the largest single-race handle of the day at $1.1 million. The average per race handle was $628,407.

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Due to COVID-19 Restrictions, Woodbine’s Opening Day is in Jeopardy

With less than a month to go before the scheduled opener on Apr. 17, Woodbine is facing the distinct possibility that it will be unable to operate next month due to COVID-19 protocols in place in Ontario. Woodbine is in an area currently designated as a Grey Zone, where horse racing is among the activities that are not allowed. Last year, the track was forced to end its meet two weeks early because of the same restrictions now threatening the April opener.

“I am really starting to get concerned,” Woodbine CEO Jim Lawson said.

A harness racing meet is currently being conducted at nearby Mohawk Park and Fort Erie, set to open June 1, will also be able to operate. Both are located in zones where there are fewer restrictions. The Woodbine backstretch is open and horses are permitted to train.

Should Woodbine not be allowed to open on time, it would become the only North American racetrack closed for racing due to the pandemic.

Last week, Lawson sent a letter to Toronto Mayor John Tory and the city's medical health officer asking for their help. On Monday, he said he was planning to spend most of the day on the phone, reaching out to anyone in government that might be able to push the provincial government into ending the restriction on racing.

To anyone who will listen, Lawson tells the same story–that there is no practical reason why Woodbine should remain closed for racing and shutting it down will mean the loss of thousands of jobs.

“We have made the argument all along that this is an outdoor activity and we wouldn't be allowing spectators,” he said. “Our risk profile in the afternoon is the same as our risk profile in the morning. We should be able to run.”

Much of Lawson's frustration stems from an exemption given to the National Hockey League. The Toronto Maple Leafs, who play at the Scotiabank Arena, which is in the same zone as Woodbine, have been able to hold all their regularly scheduled games, albeit without fans.

“This is really frustrating,” Lawson said. “We keep making the argument that how can you let hockey, an indoor activity, go on and close racing, an outdoor activity, down?”

Despite the pandemic, Woodbine was allowed to operate for much of 2020. Lawson said that during that entire time there was only one known case of Coronavirus among frontside and backstretch workers.

“Our safety record was almost perfect,” he said.

There are currently about 1,200 horses on the Woodbine backstretch and the horse population will get up to 2,000 after the meet is underway. Lawson said his biggest fear is that some of the horsemen who have yet to arrive for the meet will make plans to race elsewhere.

“What really concerns me is that we have three or four major trainers who have been calling me and saying, 'Hey, should I come?' Once we lose those trainers, I'm not sure that they will come back,” he said. “That would really hurt us if some of these trainers don't come back. The government doesn't get that and I'm not so sure they are concerned.”

Should the government decided to upgrade the area around Woodbine into a zone with fewer restrictions, then the track will be fine. But Lawson isn't going to sit back and wait for that to happen.

“I am very concerned and this is about to become a crisis for us,” he said. “It's a crisis because soon there will be 2,000 people back there looking after these horses. If these people lose their jobs, there's nothing else that they can do. Especially after I had heard from trainers that may not come back, I am trying to impress upon people that we are on the cusp of a very big problem that could do irreparable damage to us as a business. We will need some answers very soon as to whether or not we can make an Apr. 17 opener.”

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