Pink Lloyd Gallops for Fun in Greenwood Win

TORONTO, ON – Entourage Stable’s local hero Pink Lloyd stalked the early pace before changing gears and hitting interstellar overdrive to gallop away for fun in Saturday’s $125,000 Greenwood Stakes at Woodbine.

Breaking from post 4 under Eurico Rosa da Silva as the 1/5 favorite, Pink Lloyd soon settled into fourth as the field raced down the backstretch. Up front, his stablemate Circle of Friends applied pressure to early leader Sumerian Bell through rip-roaring fractions of :21.56 and :44.25. Entering the far turn, the field began to bunch up, but da Silva never panicked.

Waiting until he was midway through the far turn, da Silva finally gave Pink Lloyd his cue, and he responded with a sweeping four-wide move that put him on the front end in a flash. At the top of the stretch, the only question was how many lengths he would put between himself and his foes. Galloping home under an easy hand ride, Pink Lloyd crossed 1 3/4 lengths clear in a final time of 1:08.98 for the 6-furlong sprint over the fast all weather track.

“In the backstretch, he said, ‘Eurico, enjoy the trip. I’m going to take care of this,'” da Silva said. “And in the turn, he just kicked. I took him a little bit outside and he said, ‘Hold on, because I’m going to accelerate!'”

Marten Lake ran well in the stretch to extend his run of top-two finishes to eight, while Call Me Wally was lengths 4 1/2 behind him in third. Eskiminzin headed a weakening Circle of Friends at the wire for fourth, while Sable Island fell back steadily in the stretch and outfinished only Sumerian Bell, who was eased at the wire to complete the order of finish.

The Greenwood, originally scheduled for May 25, had been canceled due to heavy fog that rolled in midway through that day’s card. All entries from last weekend carried over to today, but Blueblood‘s connections opted to scratch him here.

Pink Lloyd’s win was his second of the year, having kicked off 2019 with his third straight victory in the Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3) on May 4. The 7-year-old gelded son of Old Forester improved his record to 23-18-1-1 with $1,072,047 earned. The Robert Tiller trainee has now won 14 of 15 starts when going 6 furlongs over the Woodbine all weather surface.

“Deep down inside, I wasn’t worried about (the race being delayed one week),” Tiller said. “I knew we had him in good order, I knew he was happy. As long as everything goes good with the gate thing and his little issues last fall, I knew he was going to run a big one. I really wasn’t concerned about the delay. He’s a smart horse.”

Pink Lloyd returned $2.70 to win and $2.10 to place, while Marten Lake paid $4.70 to place. There was no show betting.