Kennedy Road Preview: Pink Lloyd Aims For Third Title

TORONTO, ON – Entourage Stable’s legendary Ontario-bred sprinter Pink Lloyd takes aim at winning his third race title in Saturday’s $175,000 Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) at Woodbine.

The Kennedy Road is a 6-furlong synthetic sprint open to horses ages 3 and up. This year’s edition is the ninth event on an 11-race card and has a local post time of 5:28 PM.

Here’s a look at the full field for the Kennedy Road:

1. Souper Stonehenge 12/1 – The first of two entries from the meet’s leading trainer Mark Casse stretches out slightly after winning at 5 1/2 furlongs over this course against optional claiming rivals. He picks up Emma-Jayne Wilson, winner of 18% of her mounts for this barn, but he needs to improve upon his career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure on synthetic to compete here.

2. Ride a Comet 5/2 – Casse’s second entry makes his second start back after missing 25 months of time, dating back to his 2018 Del Mar Derby (G2) victory. He easily won his return, a local 7-furlong sprint against optional claimers, and retains Patrick Husbands for the second straight start; Husbands and Casse have a 21% shared-mount strike rate.

3. Eskiminzin 20/1 – He makes his seventh attempt at the graded stakes ranks while hoping to improve upon his fourth-place finish in the Vigil (G3), his career-best result at this level. While he’s a stakes winner on both local surfaces, his last synthetic victory came in the 2017 Simcoe Stakes in his last start with former trainer Analisa Delmas.

4. Silent Poet 2/1 – After winning 4 of his 5 starts this year (including 2 at the graded stakes level) over the local turf, he transfers back to the synthetic for the first time in 23 months. He broke his maiden over this course and hit the board in a pair of Ontario-bred stakes in 2018, and if he successfully transfers his front-running style, he could prove uncatchable.

5. Dixie’s Gamble 15/1 – He switches back to the synthetic after finishing fifth in the Overskate Stakes last time out on the local turf. That October 31 start was his first since finishing fourth in last year’s Kennedy Road and trainer Josie Carroll has a 17% success rate with horses making their second starts back after similar layoffs, so bettors should expect improvement here.

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6. Roaring Forties 20/1 – He enters still trying to hit the board for the first time this year after failing to make a mark in 3 prior Grade 3 attempts, twice losing to Pink Lloyd in that stretch. His 3 career victories all came going longer than this over the local synthetic, but perhaps changing riders to Kazushi Kimura (currently third in the meet’s standings) wakes him up.

7. Pink Lloyd 7/5 – The 23-time stakes champion has won this race twice previously – 2019 and 2017 – and missed by 1 length in the 2016 edition (he didn’t attempt the race in 2018). The Robert Tiller trainee has won every 2020 start, all in stakes: the Jacques Cartier (G3), the Shepperton, the Bold Venture (G3), and the Vigil. 

“We’re both very happy,” Tiller said. “He’s doing well. We haven’t run for 2 1/2 months, so we’re in new territory. That’s the big question, ‘Is it going to help him or is it going to hurt him?’ He’s 8, but I can’t worry about all of that stuff. I’ve done my job and he’s doing his job. I think he’s in good order. There are going to be some tough horses in there, some tough competition, but as far as Pink Lloyd’s concerned, it’s a horse race. We’re going into it very happy and I think he’ll be very fit and happy. Hopefully, he’s not too sharp because when he is, he sometimes can get a little goofy at the gate.”

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