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Stalwart Pink Lloyd Gets Another Stakes Win In Ontario Jockey Club

Out of a mare named Gladiator Queen, perhaps Pink Lloyd should be known as the Gladiator King. The 9-year-old gelding, a fixture on the Woodbine Tapeta, outlasted a persistent Souper Hot in the stretch to take the Ontario Jockey Club Stakes by a neck at the Toronto, Ontario track.

From post two, Pink Lloyd took up position on the rail, a half-length off of Souper Hot inside the first furlong of the six-furlong stakes. Around the race's lone turn, Pink Lloyd pulled even with Souper Hot, poised to take over as frontrunner entering the stretch.

At the top of the straightaway, Rafael Hernandez gave Pink Lloyd the cue and eked out a short lead, but Souper Hot persisted, never allowing the favorite to get more than a half-length in the lead before fighting back. At the wire, Pink Lloyd had a neck on Souper Hot, with Told It All third.

The final time for the six furlongs was 1:09.52.

Pink Lloyd paid $3.10 and $2.10. Souper Hot paid $4.20. There was no show wagering.

Bred in Ontario by John Carey, Pink Lloyd is by Old Forester. Consigned by his breeder, the 9-year-old gelding was sold to Frank De Juilio, Jr., agent, for $28,446 at the 2013 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Canadian-Bred Yearling Sale. He is owned by Entourage Stable and trained by Robert Tiller. With his win in the Ontario Jockey Club, Pink Lloyd has two wins in four starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of 28 wins in 37 starts.

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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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Bloodlines: A Toast To The Elder ‘Stakesmen’ Of Horse Racing

Fans of the sport and others involved in racing have to listen to a lot of foolishness from those with a dim view of the breed. Many of us can hear the darling, nasal whine of the PETA-phile: “Thoroughbreds are too fragile; they're born to break down.”

Phooey.

Clearly, some horses are hustled off for breeding too early, frequently sound and healthy to race, but those are economic decisions; I'm not here to argue with that. Might as well fuss about the rain coming down.

The results of racing over the weekend, however, put a sizable dent in the argument for anyone suggesting that the breed isn't sound and capable of racing at a high level well past the early years we tend to feature in the headlines.

By my count, seven 5-year-olds won stakes on the weekend, along with multiple stakes winners aged six or seven. Among the 5-year-olds were the Afleet Alex horse Tiergan (Ashley T. Cole Stakes), the Stay Thirsty horse Mind Control (Parx Dirt Mile), the Curlin mare Golden Curl (Ricks Memorial), and the Galileo horse Nayef Road, winner of the Rose Bowl Stakes at Newmarket in England.

These are solid performers, some with quite good pedigrees, and yet they are mere colts and fillies in comparison to the genuine elder stakesmen (sic) of the racing community.

Consider, for example, that Pink Lloyd won again, this for the 27th time. He's a chestnut beast by Canada's leading sire, Old Forester (by Forestry), and is also a Horse of the Year in that lovely racing jurisdiction north of the 49th Parallel.

Unraced at two and three, Pink Lloyd won three of five at age four, was third in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road. The next year at five, Pink Lloyd became Canada's Horse of the Year. That was the same year that the 5-year-olds mentioned above were yearlings. Every year since, Pink Lloyd has won a Sovereign Award as champion in at least one division in his homeland.

From 36 starts to date, the gelding has won 27, with three seconds and two thirds, for lifetime earnings to date of $1,737,917.

A regular homebody who loves his Woodbine racecourse, Pink Lloyd has never raced anywhere else, and his triumph on Saturday in the G3 Bold Venture Stakes was the 9-year-old's 24th black-type success. He practically fills a catalog page by himself.

Others among the elder stakesmen include the world traveler Benbatl, a homebred in England for Darley who races under the banner of Godolphin. Benbatl has raced in five countries (England, Germany, UAE, Australia, and Saudi Arabia).

Unraced at two, Benbatl progressed so rapidly at three that he was entered in the Derby as the winner of a maiden, although placed second in the G2 Dante Stakes in his prep for the main event, and finished a creditable fifth. The son of Dubawi won his first G1 in the Dubai Turf as a 4-year-old, then followed with another G1 in Germany and the G1 Caulfield Stakes in Australia in the span of slightly more than six months.

At times in his career, then now-7-year-old Benbatl has been ranked the highweight on year-end handicaps in England, Germany, and the UAE. The winner of 11 races so far, Benbatl has earned more than $7.8 million.

Although Pink Lloyd and Benbatl are horses of championship level who have continued to race past the typical age for modern Thoroughbreds, the majority of older races are not so exalted. They make no headlines, earn no awards, but show the spirit of their forefathers and the quality of their foremothers.

Some campaign to quite an age, and the eldest stakesman of the weekend was the Talent Search sprinter Hollywood Talent, who won the Parx Turf Monster Stakes at five furlongs in :59.51.

Age 10, Hollywood Talent won his first graded stakes in the G3 Turf Monster, and that made an even dozen victories for the gelding, who has 11 seconds and seven thirds for total earnings of $635,071.

A quick horse from the start, Hollywood Talent won his debut at Keeneland in April of his juvenile season, then was second in the G3 Bashford Manor Stakes and third in the G2 Saratoga Special. In between those races and the Turf Monster, Hollywood Talent has plied his trade in minor stakes and allowance, occasionally dropping into claiming races and then starter allowances.

Brave and fast, Hollywood Talent is an example of the Thoroughbred who is an athlete to the core, and on his day of days, he rose to the occasion and stood in the winner's circle as a graded stakes winner and an ambassador for the breed.

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9-Year-Old Canadian Champ Pink Lloyd Regains Winning Ways In Bold Venture

Sprint superstar Pink Lloyd recorded his second consecutive Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes victory, Saturday at Woodbine in Toronto, Ontario.

After two tough Bold Venture experiences, the seven-time Sovereign Award winner made it back-to-back wins in the 6 ½-furlong Tapeta race for 3-year-olds and up.

Pink Lloyd finished fifth in the 2018 running and was declared a non-starter in the 2019 edition when he broke through the starting gate early. Last year, in his third Bold Venture attempt, the Robert Tiller trainee split rivals to earn his elusive first win in the race.

On Saturday at Woodbine, Canada's Horse of the Year in 2017 was once again at his very best in the $168,900 event.

With Rafael Hernandez aboard, Pink Lloyd was in unfamiliar territory early on, as the veteran campaigner was taken to the front in a compact field of five (Reconfigure was scratched) that was devoid of early speed.

Joined to the outside by Lucky Curlin, Pink Lloyd rattled off an opening quarter in :23.83, holding a half-length advantage of over the second choice on the board. It was status quo through a half timed in :46.68, as the cat-and-mouse game between the frontrunners began to heat up around the turn for home.

Pink Lloyd, to the inside, was engaged by Lucky Curlin as the pair straightened for home, but Pink Floyd dug in gamely to fend off the strong challenge enroute to a three-quarter length victory in a time of 1:15.13.

The son of Old Forester went off as the even-money choice and returned $4.10 to win. Lucky Curlin finished second and Lookin to Strike was third.

“I just monitored to see what happens,” said Hernandez, of the early strategy. “If somebody goes crazy, I'll just sit next to him, if they don't, I'm just going to let him do his thing.

“I know he [Lucky Curlin] was breathing next to me all the way, but I trust Pink Lloyd. I said, 'When you turn for home, you're going to stretch your legs and you're going to say bye-bye.'”
It was the fourth Bold Venture title for Tiller. The Hall of Famer won in 1977 with Pres de Tu and again in 2006 with Are You Serious.

Tiller, joined by his wife Gail in the winner's circle, was emotional in the post-race interview.

“I never trained a nine-year-old stakes winner,” offered the lifetime winner of over 2,050 races. “He's still out here beating the best sprinters. I'm just so very happy today because I thought he should have won his last race [Grade 3 Vigil, on August 1 at Woodbine]. This is not his best race on the lead, that's not what he wants. He likes to run at horses. He's a very competitive horse, but we had no choice today. Raffi just rode his race. As soon as the gates opened, I knew he was going to make the lead. We didn't want to get shuffled back because there really is no speed in the race.”

Bred in Ontario by John Carey and owned by the Entourage Stable, the chestnut gelding now has 27 career wins, 24 of them stakes.

“It's an amazing story,” said Tiller. “I don't think any horse is going to come along soon and do what he's done. He's running because he's so happy. He's sounder now than he's ever been. I thank the good Lord that my wife is here to see him. This one today is very special. We're blessed to have had this horse. He's an icon.”

In other Saturday stakes action, Miss Speedy took the $141,300 Duchess, for three-year-old fillies, besting nine rivals over seven furlongs on the main track.

It was Miss Speedy, with Rafael Hernandez aboard, who emerged with the lead in a tightly-bunched group, holding a one-length advantage after a quarter timed in :22.82. The duo was still running comfortably on the front end by 1 ½-lengths after a half-mile in :45.41, as Bellissime and Sweet Souper Sweet tracked the leader.

Hernandez called on Miss Speedy around the turn, and the pair started to separate themselves from any late challengers with relative ease, maintaining their two-length advantage at the stretch call for the victory. Aug Lutes was second and Salty as Can Be, also a Casse trainee, was third.

The final time was 1:21.10.

Although the plan wasn't to go to the lead, Hernandez was content to set the pace.

“I was thinking I was going to be second, maybe third, behind two horses that show early speed,” said the champion rider. “When the gates opened, my horse was in there, and I looked inside me and said, 'No one is going to go, okay I'll take it.' And then everything was on the horse.”

It was the third win from four starts for the Mark Casse-trained filly, who launched her career with a couple of strong performances this summer for owners Gary Barber, Ryan Shane Kerbel and Barry Kerbel.

Miss Speedy arrived at the Duchess off a fourth-place finish in the Bison City Stakes, in what was her first added-money test.

The daughter of Souper Speedy paid $6.60 to win as the slight choice.

Miss Speedy was bred in Ontario by Linda Mason.

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