Canadian superstar Pink Lloyd and his longtime partner, Eurico Rosa Da Silva, joined forces for the final time to win the $175,000 G2 Kennedy Road Stakes on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine.
Owned by the Entourage Stable and trained by Hall of Famer Robert Tiller, Pink Lloyd came from last to first to take the 6-furlong sprint in a time of 1:08.72.
It was a bittersweet victory for Woodbine’s leading jockey, who will be retiring from racing at the conclusion of the meet next month. “I want to thank this horse for all the good feelings he gave me,” said an emotional Da Silva in the winner’s circle.
“Yesterday was not easy for me and today was a tough time because I know it was my last time riding him. All I can say is I’ve never had so much great feelings from a horse like I did with him.
“And you see today, there was so much [traffic] in front of me, I just took him back and I said, “Boy, we need to go outside.’ I went probably six wide in the turn. You know, there’s only one horse that can do it. His name is Pink Lloyd.”
The 7-year-old trailed his rivals through opening sections of :22.61 and :45.21 before kicking into action approaching the final turn. He rallied widest of all and circled his opponents, taking the lead in the stretch and sprinting clear to earn his 22nd career win by a length and a quarter.
The Old Forester gelding first won the Kennedy Road during a perfect 2017 eight-race campaign in which he was named Canada’s Horse of the Year. He went five-for-eight last year and was named Champion Male Sprinter for the second time and entered this year’s edition of the Kennedy Road with a five-for-five seasonal record after having been declared a non-starter last time out for the G3 Bold Venture and skipping last month’s Overskate.
“This all boils down to teamwork,” said Tiller, acknowledging the team behind the legend, who has earned more than $1.7 million from 27 career starts.
“There’ll never be another one like this horse. My owners have been terrific. They were willing to wait. I felt after his last race he needed a rest. He got it and we had a couple interruptions in between – they were very hard on my grey hair and made it even greyer – but, you know what, this is 19 stakes out of 22 wins so that’s pretty amazing … and it seems like it ain’t over yet. We’re really blessed to have him.”