Page 7 - March 2017 Thoroughbred Highlight

Training 45 Years
Sovereign Award Outstanding Trainer in 2001, 2003 and 2004, Robert Tiller is back at Woodbine for another season. Pictured here left to right: Assistant Trainer Tom Lottridge, Trainer Robert Tiller, and grooms Michelle Laws and David Wilson.
This year will be Robert’s 45th year of training at Woodbine and he has been one of the top trainers at the track for more than half of those years. Robert has 1880 wins and more than $61 million in purse earnings to his name.
2003 was his best career year with more than $4 million in earnings and 73 wins in 254 starts (28%) earning the second of his three Sovereign Awards that year.
The top two money earners that Robert has trained have been for his longtime owner and friend Frank
Di Giulio Jr. which include homebreds; Millionaire, Brass in Pocket and Champion, Win City. Robert also trained Domasca Dan, owned by Frank Di Giulio Sr. and Jr., the sire of Brass in Pocket.
Other stable stars included Winter Garden (owned by Frank Di Giulio Jr.), Twisted Wit (when owned by Rolph Davis), Forever Grand (when Robert owned him in partnership with Frank Di Giulio Jr.) , and Dancer’s Bajan owned by 3 Sons Racing Stable Ltd.
Robert’s most recent winners of 2016 include G2 Bessarabian Stakes winner River Maid, owned by another longtime client, The Very Dry Stable, and Multiple Stakes winner Sweater Weather, owned by Frank Di Giulio Jr.
Skylander Girl Returns
Trainer Alexander Patykewich said he wasn’t going to let Graded Stakes winning mare, Skylander Girl, be sold at auction for less than $200,000. So when the gavel struck at $190,000 at Keeneland’s November sale last year Alex brought his mare home to race
Skylander Girl
another season. Alex purchased the
daughter of Stroll at the 2012 CTHS Canadian Yearling sale for $3500. Out of Champion Grass Mare (2000) Heliotrope, Skylander Girl, did her best running
in sprint races winning the 2015 G3 Hendrie Stakes; the My Dear and Ontario Debutante Stakes in 2013 on the synthetic Polytrack and an Allowance on the turf at Woodbine.
Skylander Girl also ran second in the 2014 Ontario Damsel, the Wonder Where, and the Algoma Stakes at Woodbine as well as the G3 Marcshua’s River Stakes at Gulfstream Park and G3 Whimsical Stakes at Woodbine in 2015. Read Toronto Star Article
Alexander began training at Woodbine, Greenwood and Fort Erie in 1976 for one decade with some success running both his own and clients’ horses.
He returned to training in 2000 and has enjoyed successes the past four years with Skylander Girl, and last season with a talented two-year-old King and His Court. Alexander purchased King and His Court as a yearling for $2500 and after a third place nish
in the G3 Grey Stakes, Alexander sold the two year- old Court Vision gelding privately to Gary Barber & Wachtel Stable. King and His Court went on to win the Coronation Futurity and Display Stakes for his new connections and is second choice favourite in the 2017 Queen’s Plate Winterbook.
Trainer Alexander Patykewich with King and His Court in August 2016
Woodbine 2017 Stakes Schedule
A detailed 2017 thoroughbred stakes schedule is available now.
Read the Details Here
Thoroughbred Highlight - Page 7 - March 2017