Pink Lloyd done for the year, expected back in 2019

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Pink Lloyd is done racing for the year, but he should be back for another campaign in 2019. The popular 6-year-old bled while finishing fourth last out in the Oct. 27 Overskate Stakes.

“He hasn’t trained since his last race,” said trainer Robert Tiller. “He’s with us at Woodbine, where we want him to be right now. He’s very happy and looking to train, but he gets walked for an hour every morning. He will go to [Buttigieg Training Centre] around the first of December. He needs a rest. He’ll get the proper opportunity to heal up his little issues.”

Tiller said Dr. Darryl Bonder performed minor knee surgery on Pink Lloyd last December, after the powerful gelding won all eight of his 2017 outings in stakes.

Pink Lloyd won his 2018 debut on April 21, in the six-furlong Jacques Cartier Stakes, in track record time, while earning a career high 106 Beyer Speed Figure. He subsequently took the New Providence and Achievement Stakes, which extended his win streak to 11 races.

Pink Lloyd’s incredible roll ended when he weakened to third after getting softened up in a speed duel in the July 8 Shepperton Stakes. That was around the time that he began to develop some bad gate habits that included rearing up at the break.

Pink Lloyd won the Grade 3 Vigil and Kenora Stakes later in the summer, before his pre-race antics came to a head in the Sept. 15 Bold Venture Stakes. On a hot day in that Grade 3 event, he broke through the gate and dumped jockey Eurico Da Silva. He was reloaded, and finished a non-threatening fifth in the worst performance of his career.

Tiller did extensive gate schooling with Pink Lloyd prior to the seven-furlong Overskate, in which the son of Old Forester seemed headed for victory before flattening out to finish two lengths behind victorious Thor’s Rocket.

Even though he will miss the Grade 2 Kennedy Road Stakes on Nov. 24. Tiller believes that Pink Lloyd has done enough to land his second consecutive Sovereign Award for champion male sprinter.

“He won five stakes and broke the track record coming off minor surgery,” Tiller said. “There’s no question in my mind that he deserves to be sprinter of the year.”

After winning 16 of 21 starts for earnings of $1,230,830, Tiller said Pink Lloyd is remarkably sound.

“Leg-wise, he’s never been better,” Tiller explained. “He’s an amazing animal. He’s the best horse I’ve ever trained. We’re looking forward to next year. Hopefully, he’ll be back to kick some more ass. I believe he’ll win some more races. When the day comes that he doesn’t want to do it any more, then we’ll find a great home for him.”