Kingsport Ends Pink Lloyd's Win Streak in Shepperton

Canadian Horse of the Year Pink Lloyd had his 11-race win streak snapped July 8 in the $100,000 Shepperton Stakes at Woodbine, as longshot Kingsport rallied between horses to pass the 1-9 favorite late.

After he hopped at the start, Pink Lloyd went to the front of the field of five for the 6 1/2-furlong stakes over Woodbine's main track but was hounded on the outside by Boreal Spirit through a first quarter in :22.43.

The half went in :44.86 and Boreal Sprit faded in the stretch, but the North Light  gelding surely had an impact on the result.

At first, it looked as though Entourage Stable's Pink Lloyd would hold off the looming Jacks Escarpment, but Kingsport was the real danger under jockey Patrick Husbands. The 6-year-old son of Milwaukee Brew  arrived on the scene late but found room between the pair and surged to the front in the final strides to win by 1 1/2 lengths in a final time of 1:15.61.

Trained by Sid Attard and owned by Goldmart Farms and Royal Laser Racing, Kingsport was eight lengths back after a half-mile and still had 3 1/2 lengths to make up with a furlong to run.

"He never ran a jump in his last race, so Sid decided to cut him back," Husbands said of Kingsport's fourth-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile Steady Growth Stakes June 16 at Woodbine. "My game plan was that there was going to be speed up front and give him one run."

Jacks Escarpment finished a head in front of Pink Lloyd for second. The result was only Pink Lloyd's second finish out of the top two in his 17 starts. The other was a fifth-place run in the 2016 Overskate Stakes at Woodbine.

"The horse has won a lot of races for me. I'm not going to be upset because we lost today," said Pink Lloyd's jockey, Eurico Rosa da Silva. "Bad luck that my horse broke too sharp, and when I tried to take him back, he was fighting me, and I let him run. I made that decision and I had to live with it."

Kingsport, now a six-time stakes winner, also won the Shepperton for Ontario-sired horses in 2016. He has an 8-7-3 record from 26 starts and $553,796 in earnings. He was bred in Ontario by Richard Moylan, out of the Green Dancer mare Green Jewel.

"He can do whatever you want. It just depends on how the race goes," Attard said. "When I saw him so far back, I wasn't nervous. I knew he was going to come (with a run). I didn't know if he was going to get there like he did, but Patrick really gave him a good ride. We've had a lot of good luck. He's won a lot of big races for us."

Boreal Spirit finished fourth, 3 1/4 lengths behind Pink Lloyd, and was followed by Nupogodi to complete the order of finish.