At the ripe old age of 9, Pink Lloyd is still giving his exercise rider a challenge each morning.
"He's not an easy horse to get on," said trainer Robert Tiller. "He'll go trucking around there if you don't know him. His exercise rider knows him well, luckily."
The seven-time Sovereign Award winner will chase an unprecedented fifth consecutive victory in the June 20 CA$150,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3) at Woodbine. Pink Lloyd first captured the six-furlong event for 4-year-olds and up in 2017 as the springboard for a perfect 8-for-8 campaign that culminated in Canadian Horse of the Year honors.
Although Woodbine has only opened for racing as of June 12, the lengthy six-month layoff is par for the course for Pink Lloyd. The Old Forester gelding has used the Jacques Cartier as a launching pad for his championship campaign every year. His final start of 2020 was a third-place finish in the Nov. 21 Kennedy Road Stakes (G2), his only defeat in five trips to the post last season.
Last year he won the Jacques Cartier by two lengths.
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"He's very happy, and he's very sound; he loves racing," said Tiller. "As long as he's sound enough and he races good enough, we'll carry on with him. As far as the fifth win in a row, we're going to see. He does his half-mile works by himself late in the morning. The age doesn't seem to have gotten to him."
Owned by Entourage Stable, Pink Lloyd was bred in Ontario by John Carey. It has been planned for some time now that the gelding will be sent to LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society in Ontario upon his retirement.
"This will probably be his last year (racing)," Tiller said. "You have to remember I'm 71 and I can't run like I did when I was 22. And he's 9 so he might not be able to run as good as he once could, so we're just taking one start at a time for him. All good things come to an end eventually, and we have to realize that any race he has could be the last of his career. That's how I look at it."
Jockey Daisuke Fukumoto, who guided Mighty Heart to a Queen's Plate triumph last year, will take the reins on Pink Lloyd in the Jacques Cartier for the first time. The chestnut's regular rider, Rafael Hernandez, sustained a fracture in a fall in the last race at Woodbine June 12 and will be out of action for three to five weeks.
"(Fukumoto) won the Plate last year. He seems to have a good sense of pace and knows what he's doing," said Tiller. "He won a lot of races for me last year. I have faith in him."
Pink Lloyd, a 26-time winner from 33 starts, carries top weight of 126 pounds, six more than all five of his rivals in the Jacques Cartier.
The Mark Casse-trained Souper Stonehenge, third two starts back in the April 3 Carter Handicap (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack, 2020 Jacques Cartier runner-up Malibu Secret, stakes winner Dixie's Gamble, stakes-placed Readyforprimetime, and the Wesley Ward-trained U.S. shipper Joker On Jack complete the field.
Woodbine, Sunday, June 20, 2021, Race 7Entries: Jacques Cartier S. (G3)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Joker On Jack (KY) Emma-Jayne Wilson 120 Wesley A. Ward 4/1 2 2Pink Lloyd (ON) Daisuke Fukumoto 126 Robert P. Tiller 4/5 3 3Malibu Secret (ON) Kazushi Kimura 120 Martin Drexler 20/1 4 4Readyforprimetime (KY) Justin Stein 120 Michael P. De Paulo 10/1 5 5Souper Stonehenge (FL) Patrick Husbands 120 Mark E. Casse 2/1 6 6Dixie's Gamble (ON) Luis Contreras 120 Josie Carroll 20/1
