Hall of Fame trainer

Roger Attfield, 86, a member of both the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame and the United States National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, is retiring from training after a 54-year career, although he plans to remain involved in the sport as an owner, breeder and consultant. The news was announced via press release Mar. 25 by Woodbine Racetrack. Attfield enjoyed much of his success on the Ontario circuit, where he won the Sovereign for Outstanding Canadian Trainer eight times and conditioned six Canadian Horses of the Year...

Hall of Fame trainer King Leatherbury, whose career spanned eight decades and included 52 training titles combined at Pimlico and Laurel, has passed away. He was 92 and died Tuesday at his home. "He's one of a kind, said one of his twin sons, Taylor Leatherbury. "There's never been a man more appropriately named than my father." Born in Shady Side, Maryland, Leatherbury was raised on a farm where his father had horses. After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in business administration, Leatherbury went to work...

Trainer Christophe Clement sadly passed away without being inducted into the National Museum of Racing's 2025 Hall of Fame class, and I freely admit that I did not cast a ballot for him again. Something is amiss because it feels like a failure on my part, the voters and by the system. When the envelope has arrived in the mail these past few years and I look down at the list of trainers it always fills my cup full of dread. Take your medicine, I tell myself, but it's so...

Barnes (Into Mischief), an unraced 2-year-old colt who sold for $3.2 million as a FTSAUG yearling in 2023, has been entered by trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Racing Stables in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight sprint at Churchill Downs next Wednesday. The start will be Baffert's first at the Louisville track since Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) on July 19, 2024, announced the lifting of a corporation-imposed three-year suspension that had kept the Hall-of-Fame trainer from racing in the GI Kentucky Derby and at any of CDI's tracks nationwide....

Trainer Richard Mandella, a member of racing's Hall of Fame since 2001, has been named the 20th recipient of the Laffit Pincay, Jr. Award and will be honored at Del Mar on Saturday, Aug. 31, the track said in a Thursday release. The Pincay Award, named for, and presented by, the Hall of Fame rider, goes to those who have served the sport of racing "with integrity, extraordinary dedication, determination and distinction." Mandella, 74, went out on his own with a public stable in 1976 and has over 2,300 winners...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ten days before the start of the Saratoga season, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was typically optimistic and realistic about how his stable might follow yet another solid summer at the Spa. Long a force at Saratoga, where he has won or shared nine titles, Mott was without most of the heavy hitters from the lineup that carried him to an Eclipse Award: - Horse of the Year and champion Cody's Wish (Curlin), third in the GI Whitney in the experiment at 1 1/8 miles,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Arriving just in time at the wire, Elite Power (Curlin) added to Bill Mott's massive resume of Grade I triumphs Saturday and yet another birthday victory to his remarkable total at Saratoga Race Course. With his thrilling come-from-behind score by a head over Gunite (Gun Runner) Saturday in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H., the 4-year-old Juddmonte colt provided the Hall of Famer with a very nice present on his 70th birthday. By extending his winning streak to eight, Elite Power gave Mott his 24th Saratoga...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When three veteran turf writers approached him at his Saratoga barn last week, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott impishly decided to reverse roles. Before the journalists were able to offer more than a hello, Mott started asking pretty much the same questions he knew were coming his way. For several seconds, the interviewee was the light-hearted interviewer. Mott knows the drill. He has been training horses since he was a teenager in Mobridge, South Dakota, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of...

Juddmonte's GISW Elite Power (Curlin) and MGISW Cody's Wish (Curlin) both worked for trainer Bill Mott over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga this past week. Elite Power went three-eighths in 36.02 on Saturday, June 24 in his first breeze since his 1 3/4-length score in the GII True North S. on Belmont Stakes Day. The 5-year-old chestnut is targeting Saratoga's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. on July 29. "He worked fine. We'll run in the Vanderbilt," the Hall of Fame trainer said. Mott indicated that Elite Power's main year-end...

Already the winningest trainer in the history of North American racing, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen is close to another milestone, his 10,000th career win. Asmussen entered Thursday with 9,997 wins and had only one starter on the day, Flute Master (Gun Runner) in a maiden special weight race at Turfway Park. After a quiet day for the barn, Asmussen's stable will go into overdrive on Friday. He has 13 horses entered in 11 races. His day will begin at Oaklawn Park, where he has entries in seven races....

Breeders' Cup Juvenile races produced both the 2-year-old filly and colt champions, with Wonder Wheel taking the filly statue and Forte leading the colts. WONDER WHEEL Each spring, as most trainers get their promising 2-year-olds ready to begin their careers, invariably one or two (or maybe more, depending on the conditioner) of these youngsters stand out. And just as invariably, these trainers hold their breath and cross everything they can cross to help ensure everything goes right enough that the end result--a Breeders' Cup win--produces the ultimate result--the Eclipse Award....

In an era where robust stables seem to dominate the upper echelon of racing, dual Hall of Famer Roger Attfield has proven that while numbers matter, how you handle the ones you've got is often of greater consequence. And although one operation might attain a certain number of wins at half the speed of another, in part buoyed by its sheer loft, crossing the wire first remains the great equalizer. Illustrating that importance of reaching the milestone following a lifetime of churning out the highest quality runners, Attfield remains only...