Frank Di Giulio, Jr.
/By Bill Heller
“Patience” and “Thoroughbred” don’t belong in the same sentence, but prominent Canadian owner, breeder and industry leader Frank Di Giulio Jr., has it ingrained. His father, a life-long racing fan, waited until he was 71 to buy his first Thoroughbred, Truganini, on April 1, 1981 at Greenwood. “He was a four-year-old, $5,000 maiden claimer,” Frank Jr. said. “He won the day he claimed him, won his next two starts and got claimed for $7,500. My dad was mad when he got claimed.”
He shouldn’t have been. Truganini never won again, losing his final 21 starts.
Five years later, Frank Jr. got his first horse at half his father’s age when he teamed with his father to claim Sacred Rite for $6,260 on October 24, 1986. The Di Giulios had to wait 5 ½ months for Sacred Rite to locate the winner’s circle at Woodbine by a head. “The first win—it was great,” Frank Jr., now 60, said. “I remember dreaming about horses when I was a kid. As a teen, looking at claimers I couldn’t afford, I always wanted to name my own horse. You can’t do that when you claim one.”
This one they claimed, Sacred Rite, mirrored Truganini’s career, losing his final 16 starts. He was claimed away from the Di Giulios for $6,250, then lost his final 12 races.
The lack of success didn’t faze Frank Sr. who had emigrated to Toronto (Canada) in 1923. “He was originally a barber, then got into real estate,” Frank Jr. said. “He loved going to the track with his buddies. That rubbed off on me. I went to the track for the first time when I was 10.”
Frank, now 60, followed his father into the property management business and became one of the most successful Canadian owners and breeders. He has served as a director of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society the last 26 years, and was named one of the “Top 25 Influencers in Canadian Thoroughbred Racing 2020,” by Canadian Thoroughbred magazine.
Four-and-a-half decades later, Frank Jr. and his four partners in Entourage Stable purchased a yearling for $30,000. Frank Jr. had the opportunity to name this yearling, but it was one of his partners, Ed Longo, who came up with the name of Pink Lloyd, taken from the character Lloyd on the TV show “Entourage” and the rock band, Pink Lloyd.
Pink Lloyd winning the 2017 Kenora Stakes at Woodbine, a race he would go on to win again in 2018 and 2019
Pink Lloyd looked like he had a lot of talent but couldn’t make it into the starting gate. He would require a ton of patience.
“That was frustrating,” Pink Lloyd’s Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Bob Tiller said. “It was one thing after another. He came up lame as a yearling. We had to stop with him all the time. A hock. A bad shin as a three-year-old. Dead lame. We had to give him enough time to get over that. Then he had a muscle issue behind.
“I always believe in stopping with a horse when he has an issue. We knew he could run. When he worked, all he wanted to do was run by horses. He just loved chasing horses and going by them.”
Tiller dearly wanted to see this promising horse make it to the track. “I had the right owners to let me be patient. I’ve trained exclusively for the Di Giulios for 40 years. I started with his dad. They’re wonderful people. The management of this horse was outstanding.”
Waiting wasn’t easy for Frank Jr. “It was a frustrating thing,” he said. “He’d work a couple times. Something came up. Go to the farm. Come back. Nagging things, pulled muscle behind, a shin. All different things. Bob always really liked him. He didn’t run until late August in his four-year-old year. I never looked forward to a first start more than that with him.”
Man, was he worth the wait. This remarkable gelding won his first start in a sparkling 1:09 at Woodbine on the way to a three-race win streak to begin his career. Five years later, he finished his career with a three-race winning streak, taking his finale in the Gr. 2 Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine in 1:08 4/5. In between, he had an 11-race winning streak, which led him to be named 2017 Canadian Horse of the Year, and another five-race win streak.
“It’ll be another 100 years before you see another one like him—as good at 9 as he was at 4,” Tiller said.
Pink Lloyd had three victories, a second and a third in five starts in the Kennedy Road Stakes. He had four victories and one second in five tries in the Gr. 3 Vigil Stakes; and he posted three victories, including a track record and one second in four appearances in the Gr. 3 Jacques Cartier Stakes.
Frank Di Giulio Jr with wife Jennifer and children Luke and Olivia
His final numbers were 29 victories, including 26 stakes, three seconds and two thirds in 37 races and earnings of $1,884,584. All but his first three career starts were in stakes.
He never competed in the Breeders’ Cup, never raced in a Gr. 1 and never raced out of Canada. “He liked it here,” Frank Jr. said. “He was kind of high strung when he was younger. He had a special stall lined in rubber because he liked to kick. There were a lot of people saying, `Run him in the U.S. and try the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. I said, `No.’ We were never really tempted. It paid off with six years of racing. It was all at the highest level.”
Along the way, Pink Lloyd was dubbed “The People’s Horse.” “I think people really liked him,” Frank Jr. said. “I do believe he had a fanbase. People did cheer for him.”
They could have cheered for his connections. “He retired sound,” Frank Jr. said. “He could have run this year.”
Frank Jr. was delighted to share Pink Lloyd’s career with his two children, 27-year-old Olivia, a teacher, and 24-year-old Luc, a financial analyst.
The Di Giulio’s decided to share Pink Lloyd’s retirement with the public, sending him to the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society in Erin, Ontario—the home of more than 50 retired Thoroughbreds. He was treated like a rock star when he arrived there December 8th. The farm’s manager, Lauren Millet-Simpson, said, “The second he walked off the trailer, he struck a pose. He's a true professional. It will be cool to work with a horse like that.”
Frank Jr. said, “It’s great for us because we’re fairly close, and it’s a good draw for them. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Asked in early January how much he misses Pink Lloyd, Frank Jr. said, “Right now, it’s just the off-season. He wouldn’t have been running. I’ll miss him a lot more once the season starts. He was a once-in-a-lifetime.”
Thanks to his patient handling.
![Robert Tiller ProfileBy: Alex CampbellBy now, you’ve likely heard of Pink Lloyd, one of the greatest Canadian sprinters of all time. He has won 26 of his 31 starts—23 of which have come in stakes events. He was named Canadian Horse of the Year for his 2017 campaign that saw him win all eight of his starts. In addition, he’s been the Canadian champion male sprinter the last three years from 2017 to 2019, and appears to be well on his way to earning that honor for a fourth time in 2020.This year, Pink Lloyd also hit a major earnings milestone, crossing C$2 million in career earnings with his victory in the Gr3 Vigil Stakes on September 5. Pink Lloyd’s trainer, 2008 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Robert Tiller, also recorded a personal milestone of his own back on June 19, when he captured his 2,000th career training victory.Tiller didn’t come from a horse racing background but has devoted his life to the sport. Born in Amsterdam, Holland, 70-year-old Tiller immigrated to Canada with his family in 1960 when he was 11 years old. At 16, he found his way to the racetrack, responding to an ad in a newspaper from the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario looking for grooms and hot walkers at Woodbine. Tiller took a summer job with John Calhoun walking hots in 1966, and never left the racetrack.“I went straight from grade school to the University of Woodbine,” Tiller said. “I stuck after the summer was over. I basically got the upbringing on the racetrack, living in tack rooms. I always had a desire to be a horse trainer and started very young.”After a couple of years working for Calhoun, Tiller then went on to become a groom for trainer Glenn Magnusson. While working for Magnusson, Tiller had the opportunity to travel with horses to Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal, and while he was not officially a trainer at that time, Tiller said he was doing most of the training himself. He returned to Toronto at 21 to obtain his trainer’s license and quickly found success. He recorded 21 wins in his first year as a trainer in 1972, and 48 wins during the 1974 season after just a few years of being out on his own. In 1975, Tiller had his first Queen’s Plate starter, sending out long-shot Near the High Sea to a runner-up finish behind future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee L’Enjoleur.Tiller has been Woodbine’s leading trainer four times (1994, 1997, 2001, and 2003), and has won three Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding trainer in 2001, 2003, and 2004. Tiller has trained a number of Canadian champions over the years. Along with Pink Lloyd, Tiller also trained 2001 Canadian Horse of the Year and Canadian champion three-year-old, Win City, who won the Prince of Wales Stakes and finished second in the Queen’s Plate. Rare Friends was also named Canadian champion two-year-old male in 2001, and Simply Lovely was named Canadian champion two-year-old filly in 2004. Tiller has also trained a pair of Canadian champion female sprinters, including Indian Apple Is in 2010 and River Maid in 2016.“I went through all of the stages that trainers go through,” Tiller said. “I was ‘wonder boy’ for a while. We got into the claiming game with some clients. I was leading trainer a few times or close to it. We’ve won a lot of races. You’re only as good as your horses in this game. It’s like a good hockey coach if they have a bunch of bad players. I don’t care what anyone says: without talented horses, we have nothing.”If a trainer is only as good as his or her horses, as Tiller says, then it must take a good eye to select those good horses. Tiller has done that, not only at the sales but in the claiming game as well. Tiller said his experience with different horses throughout his career has helped refine his horse selection process.“You learn from your mistakes,” he said. “I’ve bought a lot of good horses over the years. I enjoy going to the sales. I like to think of myself as an all-around horseman.”Pink Lloyd was a $30,000 purchase at the 2013 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Canadian Premier Yearling Sale. Tiller said he and his clients, including Frank Di Giulio, Jr., went into the sale with a short list of horses and ended up purchasing six horses out of the sale.“We had a list of horses that year, as every other horseman does,” he said. “We liked the way [Pink Lloyd] walked and we liked the sire, Old Forester. We took a shot on him, and it’s all turned out great. Three of them ended up winning races, and two of them never made the races. This happens all of the time.”Tiller said there’s one piece of advice he learned early on in his career that he’s always remembered, and that advice has played a key role in Pink Lloyd’s achievements.“There was a trainer, Lou Cavalaris Jr., who was well-respected,” he said. “He said to me ‘everybody trains horses son, but it’s a game of details.’ I never forgot that. It is a real game of details. Everything from shoes to feed, to how you train a horse. That to me is the most important thing—trying to figure out how to get that horse to that race happy and fit and wanting to run.”Tiller’s attention to the details has helped the eight-year-old son of Old Forester stay at the top of his game over multiple campaigns. Pink Lloyd’s career even got off to a late start, as he didn’t make it to the races until his four-year-old year due to a number of issues along the way. Pink Lloyd won the first three starts of his career in 2016, but Tiller noticed that he seemed to be over-exerting himself in the mornings.“In the early years, we used to take him out on the track when there were a lot of horses, and he just kept getting tougher and tougher,” he said. “He got to the point where he was in a very strong gallop all of the time. He was just burning himself out in the morning.”To help Pink Lloyd relax, Tiller decided that he would take the horse to the track very close to the end of training hours, around 10:30 a.m., when almost every other horse on the grounds had completed their training for the day.“In my past experience, it’s worked with a few horses, so I said ‘let’s take this guy out there when there’s nobody out there,’” he said. “Every day, he got more relaxed; and then we got to the point where we could actually hack him and do a slow, slow gallop. It was just a shot I took with him, and it worked with him.”Shortly after Tiller made that adjustment, Pink Lloyd went on to reel off a streak of 11 consecutive wins over a 13-month span between April 2017 and June 2018. He also went on another double-digit win streak between May 2019 and October 2020, and Tiller is hoping to run him twice more before the end of the 2020 season. In between, Tiller said Pink Lloyd has had his share of close calls.“It’s amazing he’s still running as good as he is now as he was as a four-year-old,” he said. “He had incidents at the starting gate where he broke through the gate a few times. He had one major bleeding incident at the end of his 2018. We put him away. It was caused by a viral thing. He’s had many days where he wasn’t sound. He’s had foot problems and hock problems. Nothing’s guaranteed here, and he’s survived it all. He had a lot of issues and a lot of problems, and it’s pretty amazing what he’s done. He’s not an ordinary horse.”Another factor in Pink Lloyd’s prolonged success has been his training program. Instead of recorded works in between races, Tiller said his program for Pink Lloyd has centered around those long, slow gallops.“He loves two-mile hacking,” he said. “I haven’t worked him in between races. This horse gets away with hacking for three and a half weeks and racing again without a work. These are all unorthodox ways of training horses, but it has worked for him. Other trainers might argue with me, but I believe that most horses—once they’re fit—are over-trained. I don’t like working too close to a race. I like to work my horses a week to 10 days before a race. All I can say is that it’s worked for me. I’ve won enough races with the kind of stock we’ve had. I just think once horses get fit, they’re over-trained, and a lot of them do not last because of that.”Tiller has the opportunity to keep a close eye on Pink Lloyd each day, as his stall at Woodbine is located right outside of Tiller’s office in the barn. Tiller said he usually gets to the track by 6 a.m. each day. By then, the barn is already bustling with activity, as Tiller’s 35-year assistant, Tom Lottridge, gets the horses prepared for their morning training with the barn’s staff—many of whom have been with Tiller for as long as Lottridge has.“It’s a second family,” Tiller said. “We have a year-end party every year for our crew. I give out lots of hundred-dollar bills for their birthdays and stuff like that. I like to be good to people because they’re good to me. This is a job that not everybody can do. They do it for the love of the horses. It’s like a family—things aren’t always perfect, but nothing’s perfect all of the time in life.”Among Tiller’s dedicated staff is Pink Lloyd’s groom, Michelle Gibson, who Tiller said has been in close quarters with Pink Lloyd for much of the last two years.“She won’t leave him,” he said. “She’s been there seven days a week. The last two years, she’s worked 10 months straight. She will not leave this horse alone. This is the kind of dedicated people you have here. We’re all in love with him, but she’s terrific. She’s done a terrific job with him.”Tiller added that a big part of his job is staying in communication with his owners, which like Tiller’s staff, have been with him for a number of years.“I like to have a little fun at night too,” he said. “My wife, Gail, and I have always enjoyed going out with the owners and having a meal, talking about things and what’s coming up. A large part of this game for a trainer is keeping your owners happy and being communicative with them. Most of my owners are not only my owners, but they’re my friends. I think that’s very important.”As the wins have piled up, Pink Lloyd has only grown more popular with the horse racing community. Nowhere is that more true than at Woodbine, where Tiller said a number of people keep an extra eye out for the Canadian champion.“People love this horse,” he said. “The outriders are always looking for him, and they stay an extra 15 minutes to watch him gallop around there. Woodbine’s been very good at making sure this horse is safe. I’ve been here 54 years, and I’ve never seen one like him; and I don’t think you’ll see one like him in the next 54 years at Woodbine.”After more than 2,000 wins and more than 170 stakes victories, Tiller acknowledged that he would likely scale down his training in the coming years, but looking back at his career, Tiller is confident that he wouldn’t have done anything differently.“It helps to have grey hair and to have seen it all,” he said. “I’ve certainly done that. I’ve seen it all. I’ve had it all happen. This is the only business in the world where you can be a hero in race six and a bum in race eight. At least you feel that way anyway. One of these days, this thing’s going to come to an end. We’ve had a great career, and I have no regrets.”-30-](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1603532926047-P71FFVWE4FAIH8C0I4LU/Bob+Tiller+kissing+Pink+Lloyd.jpg)
