Pink Lloyd shines bright on star-filled card
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The stars will come out to play on Saturday’s Woodbine Oaks undercard, when Pink Lloyd runs in the Grade 3 Bold Venture, Silent Poet stretches to a mile against Mr Ritz in the Grade 2 King Edward, and Elizabeth Way contests the Grade 2 Dance Smartly.
Pink Lloyd, Canada’s champion male sprinter in each of the past three years, should be odds-on in the $125,000 Bold Venture, which he’s never won before. Last year, he was declared a non-starter after popping the gate early.
Pink Lloyd is a perfect 2 for 2 this year, winning the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier and the restricted Shepperton Stakes. Both races were postponed from a weekend to a Thursday night, when Woodbine was showcased on a new Canadian horse racing show on The Sports Network.
“He’s doing very well,” trainer Robert Tiller said of the 8-year-old. “There aren’t many opportunities left for him this year. We’ll go one race at time. He’s just been hacking around. He hasn’t worked again in between races. That seems to have worked for him. So far this year, we’ve been extremely pleased with him. I think he prefers it a little cooler, but the weather isn’t under our control.”
Pink Lloyd is the 128-pound highweight under Rafael Hernandez.
The 6 1/2-furlong Bold Venture drew a bigger-than-expected field of eight, including the shippers Smart Remark and White Flag.
King Edward
Silent Poet will try to remain unbeaten on the year in the $175,000 King Edward on the main turf course.
A front-runner trained by Nick Gonzalez, Silent Poet beat a quality field in his season opener in a 7 1/2-furlong allowance on the inner course. He prevailed over a soft main course most recently, going seven-eighths in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup. Silent Poet put away Admiralty Pier late under Justin Stein, who was subbing for the injured Gary Boulanger.
Silent Poet set the seven-furlong main-course record when taking last year’s Grade 2 Play the King, which will not be run at this pandemic-shortened meet. The King Edward serves as the new prep for the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 19.
“The timing is perfect, and it’s a mile on his favorite course,” Gonzalez said. “I couldn’t be happier with the way he came out of his last race. He’s been lightly raced. In the past, he had a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Just little things, but that’s in his past. He’s 5 years old now and he’s matured. He just loves his job.”
Mr Ritz, Woodbine’s leading synthetic-track router, is coming off a gate-to-wire score in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup in his second start off the sidelines. Trained by Josie Carroll, the 5-year-old has two turf wins from four starts, including a victory in the 2018 Caesars Stakes at Indiana Grand. He faded to fifth after leading the way in last year’s King Edward.
March to Arch, a stretch-runner trained by Mark Casse, has raced all over the United States in the last year. He won the nine-furlong Toronto Cup Stakes the only time he competed here, which came in 2018 at 3.
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Dance Smartly
After two races going shorter, the versatile Elizabeth Way will move out to 1 1/4 miles on the main turf in the $175,000 Dance Smartly. Her trainer, Roger Attfield, has won the Dance Smartly four times, but not since 2010.
An Irish-bred daughter of Frankel, Elizabeth Way took the Grade 3 The Very One over 1 3/16 miles at Gulfstream in February. She subsequently finished third there in the Grade 3 Orchid at 1 3/8 miles, before running a clunker in the Grade 3 Mint Julep at Churchill going 1 1/16 miles.
Elizabeth Way captured the Grade 2 Nassau over a mile after pressing a slow pace in her local debut June 27. At the time, Attfield thought the Nassau was too short for her, but now he’s not so sure.
“If you tear her pedigree apart, she should be a miler,” Attfield said. “She might prove to be a middle-distance horse rather than a distance horse, actually. We’ll find out more on the weekend. She’s doing very well.”
Attfield also entered Art of Almost, who finished a bang-up third behind Holy Helena and Starship Jubilee as a 3-year-old in last year’s Dance Smartly. She never fired when fourth in her last start, the Grade 3 Trillium on the Tapeta, an experiment that Attfield said was a bust.
“She’s trained back nicely from that race,” Attfield noted.
Etoile is sent out by trainer Chad Brown, who has won this race twice, most recently with Santa Monica in 2018. A French import, Etoile has made one start on this side of the pond, finishing eighth as the favorite in the Grade 1 Gamely on May 25 at Santa Anita.