Retirement Set for Canadian Icon Pink Lloyd

Trainer Robert Tiller is taking a pragmatic approach when he contemplates the pending retirement of Canadian icon Pink Lloyd , who will bow out with his 38th start Nov. 27 in the Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) at Woodbine.

"All good things must come to an end," said Tiller, who announced a curtain call on the seven-time Sovereign Award winner's career Nov. 23. He hopes to send the 9-year-old Old Forester gelding out on a high note Saturday for owners Entourage Stable, in a race Pink Lloyd has already won twice before, in 2017 and 2019.

"We've planned this for a couple months; he's done more than any horse could do, and he deserves it," Tiller added. "He's going to retire very, very sound, I hope. He's got one more race. He's a little bit like me, I guess—he's got little aches and pains. When you get old, that's what happens. They're all minor, but we just feel we'd rather step out at the top of the game."

Pink Lloyd's connections have long planned for the indefatigable chestnut, one of the best sprinters in Canadian racing history, to live out his days as a permanent fixture at LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society. The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited organization not only provides homes for off-track Thoroughbreds, but retrains and adopts them out for their next chapter in life. Visitors will get the chance to get up close and personal with a living legend in Ontario-bred Pink Lloyd, who earned just over CA$2.3 million while competing on the main track at Woodbine for six straight seasons.

A CA$30,000 (US$28,446) purchase by majority owner Frank Di Giulio Jr. from breeder John Carey's consignment to the 2013 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario Division's Canadian-Bred Yearling Sale, Pink Lloyd did not make his first start until his 4-year-old season in 2016, but finally rewarded his connections' patience with a win upon debut followed by two more in allowance company. Then he graduated to stakes company and never looked back. 

"What he's done has been astronomical; it's been from outer space," said Tiller, who has saddled Pink Lloyd to 25 stakes wins, a 2017 Canadian Horse of the Year crown for a season in which he went an undefeated 8-for-8, four consecutive champion male sprinter titles (2017-20), and champion older horse honors in 2017 and 2019. "I've been racing at Woodbine for almost 50 years and I don't remember another horse that comes close to doing what he's done."

Pink Lloyd owns the track record for six furlongs on the synthetic surface at Woodbine, having sped the distance in 1:08.05 when he opened his 2018 season with the Jacques Cartier Stakes score for which he was awarded a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure.

"He just loves what he does; he still loves what he does, my big concern is how he'll transition to life on the farm," Tiller said. "I think he'll settle into it and I think he deserves it.

"Even though there's a sad part of it, it's going to be a big sigh of relief for me too, because when you've got a horse like that and you've gone through every season five years straight, you've gone through all of his aches and pains and trying to keep him at the top of his game and take good care of him… it'll take all that stress away. I'm ready for it, he's ready for it, now's the time."

Tiller hopes to see a race named after Pink Lloyd, no doubt a future member of the Canadian Hall of Fame.

"He's been very good for Canadian racing, he's been very good for Woodbine, and he's been extremely good for me and the owners," Tiller said. "He's just a horse that's really had a lot of desire and heart. He'll never be replaced in my eyes."