Sahara Sky Reminds Lloyd of Skipat

Kim Lloyd knows his way around the race track.

If vaudeville was his game, they’d say he was born in a trunk. As it is, the 59-year-old Oklahoma native is a died-in-the-wool race tracker.

“I was 60 days old when I had my first picture taken in the winner’s circle,“ said Lloyd, currently in his seventh year as General Manager of Barretts Sales and Racing in Pomona.

“I trained about 25 years, but worked on the backside forever,” said Lloyd, owner of 10 percent of the stretch-running stakes sprinter Sahara Sky, whose nose victory in the Grade I Metropolitan Handicap last year is his most prestigious victory.

A 6-year-old Florida-bred horse by Pleasant Tap out of the Storm Cat mare Seeking the Sky, Sahara Sky seeks his second Grade I win in Saturday’s Triple Bend Stakes at seven furlongs. To date, Sahara Sky has won eight of 20 starts and earned $1,145,328 for Lloyd, who races as Sweetwater Stable, and majority owner Jerry Hollendorfer, who also trains the horse.

Surprisingly, Lloyd says Sahara Sky is not the best horse he’s been associated with.

“That would be Skipat,” Lloyd said. “I was her assistant trainer and we ran her all over the country back in the late 70s and early 80s. She was the best horse I was ever around. She never won a Grade I, but when she was on her game, she was unbeatable.”

A 17.1 hands chestnut daughter of Jungle Cove bred in Connecticut, Skipat won 27 of 45 career starts over six years and earned $614,215 before she was retired in 1981, but soon thereafter accomplished a remarkable feat. Not only did she win the Grade II Barbara Fritchie Handicap in 1979, she won it again in 1981, after she had been retired, bred and foaled.

In August 1989, Skipat was struck by lightning and killed in her stall in Kentucky. Her foal (Skilaunch) was standing next to her, survived, and went on to produce five stakes winners from five foals.

“I was stabled with Skipat at what is now Parx, but back then it was Keystone in Bensalem, Pa., on the outskirts of Philly,” Lloyd said. “Based at Keystone were My Juliet, Dainty Dotsy and Gallant Bob, who was champion sprinter in 1975, so four top sprinters came out of there and Skipat was one of them. Danny Hasbany trained Skipat. I was his assistant, but I was also her groom.”

Lloyd was a seedling in the Sooner State but his memories still bear fruit.

“I’m from Western Oklahoma and there’s a town there called Sweetwater,” Lloyd recounted. “I was just five years old living in a place called Laverne, and it seemed like that whole town would go to Sweetwater to watch girls play softball.

“A girl named Betty Lou something--I forget her last name--pitched for our softball team who was unbeatable. She was like Nolan Ryan. She won every night she pitched. They just couldn’t hit her. It was a big event for us to go to Sweetwater and watch our heroine pitch.

“So Sweetwater has fond memories for me and that’s how I came up with Sweetwater Stable as my racing name.”

Sahara Sky certainly has done the name proud.

“He’s been wonderful,” Lloyd said. “He’s such a smart horse with a great desire to win. His San Carlos (victory on March 8) was an incredible race. He was in trouble, dropped back to last at the head of the lane, and just bulled his way through the field.

“That’s the type of horse he is. Trouble motivates him. He’s a tough battler.”

Just like Skipat.

The field for the Triple Bend: Declassify, Martin Garcia, 5-2; Drill, Mike Smith, 8-1; Gladding, Fernando Perez, 15-1; Sahara Sky, Joe Talamo, 8-5; Indexical, Mario Gutierrez, 15-1; Cyclometer, Edwin Maldonado, 5-2; and Wine Police, Victor Espinoza, 9-2.