Attard has high hopes for Piven after Limehouse Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kevin Attard is able to keep closer tabs on his horses than, say, his first cousins. His father, trainer Tino Attard, was the ninth of 26 children, with four of the boys migrating to Canada while most of their siblings stayed behind in their homeland of Malta.

“Yeah, that’d be a chore, trying to keep track of all that,” Kevin Attard said with a laugh Monday from Toronto, less than 48 hours after a colt named Piven gave him one of his biggest thrills in racing in a while. “Some of my dad’s brothers and sisters had another eight or nine kids themselves, so it’d be pretty tough.”

Fortunately, staying on top of what’s happening with Piven is much less complicated. The Florida-bred colt easily defeated five other 3-year-olds Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the restricted Limehouse Stakes, giving hope that he might some day follow in the hoofsteps of Surtsey, Calgary Cat, Melmich, Starship Jubilee, and Leonnatus Anteas, all multiple graded stakes winners for Kevin Attard.

“If he continues to develop the way we hope, he could become one of my best, that’s for sure,” said Attard, who began training in 2001 after a lengthy apprenticeship under his dad.

Piven, ridden by Jose Ortiz, won the six-furlong Limehouse by four lengths before galloping out far in front. The son of Prospective earned an 85 Beyer in a terrific dirt debut that likely will make the colt one of the favorites when the Grade 3 Swale Stakes is run here at seven furlongs on the Feb. 3 Holy Bull undercard. His four prior starts all came on the Tapeta at Woodbine.

“We’ll see how he comes out of it, but we definitely hope to run him at least one more time at Gulfstream,” said Attard, 42. “Our plan is to bring him back to Woodbine, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Piven is owned by Derek Chin, a Trinidad businessman whose Thoroughbred investments have increased in recent years.

Tino Attard said when his son sent Piven south to Gulfstream last month that the colt immediately turned heads with a couple of bullet works.

“He kept saying, ‘Dad, I’ve got a nice 2-year-old,’ ” said Tino Attard, 71. “The way he galloped out the other day, he could turn out very nice.”

Chin paid $75,000 for Piven last April at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. auction

“Obviously we’ve always thought highly of him,” Kevin Attard said. “He showed talent as soon as we got him to Woodbine.”

After his four Woodbine races, which included a second in the Colin and a fourth in the Grade 3 Grey, it was back to Florida.

“He really started working well over the dirt, enough to get you pretty excited,” Attard said. “You’re still never sure how they’ll handle the dirt the first time, but yes, we’re delighted with how he ran Saturday.”

Although Tino has been spending his winters in Florida for more than two decades, his name is far more well-known back home in Canada. Tino’s older brother Joe Attard was a trainer who died about 10 years ago, but two younger brothers, Larry (a former jockey) and Sid, remain active as trainers. Then there are nephews Jamie, Paul, and Steve, all trainers, too.

Kevin is commuting back and forth from Toronto where his children live, while his dozen or so active runners are mixed in with his dad’s in Barn 21 at Gulfstream.

“My hope is to pick up a few more horses down there before we regroup back here,” he said.