Kevin Attard

A single filly, No Time (Not This Time), was named the 7-2 morning-line favorite in a 13-horse field due to line up for the King's Plate Saturday at Woodbine. North America's oldest continually contested race, the Canadian-bred 3-year-olds will go 1 1/4 miles on the main track as the first of three legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. To be ridden again by John Velazquez, the daughter of Not This Time last won the Woodbine Oaks for owner Gary Barber and trainer Mark Casse--the jockey, owner and trainer who won...

Kevin Attard never doubted that he had what it took to train a racehorse. What he wasn't sure of, at least back then, was whether that confidence would be enough. The lifelong horseman was from a family of Canadian trainers and jockeys and he had practically grown up on the backside at Woodbine, but in 2005, his barn was down to five horses. He wrapped up the year with just four wins. "It was the first time in my life that I wrote a resume," Attard recalled. "I had a...

With a soft crunch of the ground beneath and a spring in that step of his out of the box, Two Out Hero (War Front--Song River, by Liam's Map) was smashing as he graduated on debut at Woodbine on Sunday which earned him a 'TDN Rising Star' patch for his saddlecloth. In a race which was moved from the turf to the all-weather, the 2-year-old first-timer did not mind the new surface one iota. Tearing up the base paths, Two Out Hero clearly distanced himself from the rest of field...

Unraced since November, last year's King's Plate winner and Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) returned in great style to Woodbine Saturday, winning the GIII Belle Mahone Stakes to open her 2025 season. Having beaten the boys in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the filly, named for WNBA player Caitlin Clark, returned to facing her own gender Saturday having been third behind She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland and fourth in the GIII Maple Leaf to...

6th-Woodbine, C$77,818, Alw (NW2L)/Opt. Clm ($36,086), 4-26, 3yo/up, f/m, 5 1/2f (AWT), 1:04.56, ft, 1 1/2 lengths. PARTY ON (f, 4, Twirling Candy--No Curfew, by Curlin), who has not raced in nearly two years, got her picture taken at Woodbine on opening day for the newly-crowned Sovereign recipient Kevin Attard. An 8 1/4-length winner in her only prior start in July 2023, Party On came off the bench Saturday and the filly angled over from the outside gate to take over the lead up the backstretch. Making every pole a...

On a night that saw Patches O'Houlihan (Reload) take home both Canadian Horse of the Year and Male Sprinter honors, Kevin Attard finally ended the 13-year consecutive streak of dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse when he won Outstanding Trainer by a single vote at the 50th Sovereign Awards presented by The Jockey Club of Canada which was held outside the city of Toronto, the organization said in a press release late Thursday. Besting Casse 135 to 134 in the tally, Attard pushed the outside of the envelope in what...

Canada's Sovereign Award finalists were announced by The Jockey Club of Canada Wednesday, in addition to dual Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield who will receive the E.P. Taylor Award of Merit at the 50th Annual Sovereign Awards ceremony which will be held Apr. 24 at the Paramount Eventspace in Woodbridge, Ontario. Additionally, Emma-Jayne Wilson and Moira (Ghostzapper), winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf before selling for $4.3 million at Fasig-Tipton in November, will both receive Special Sovereign Awards. Wilson surpassed Julie Krone's purse earnings record...

If only those walls could talk. There's a room from a bygone era within the press box at Aqueduct Racetrack where members of the media congregated between races. The space's counter is still there, but you have to use your imagination when it comes to what the scene looked like in the old days. The latches on the windows that are now worn with time would be thrown open to let in the sounds of the oval below, while the crisp white shades from the fixtures would have adequately illuminated...

After the Australian farm Yulong Stud paid $4.3 million to acquire GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare winner Moira (Ghostzapper) at the Fasig-Tipton November sale, it was widely assumed that she would be immediately retired and join the farm's broodmare band. But while that remains a possibility, so does a return to racing, perhaps in North America. The story was first reported in the Canadian Thoroughbred. Yulong Stud's General Manager Vin Cox told the TDN that the farm has yet to decide what's next for Moira. "We haven't made any...

It was quite a few days for Canadian-based trainer Kevin Attard. On Saturday, he won his first Breeders' Cup race with Moira (Ghostzapper) in the GI Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf and some 48 hours later she went through the ring for $4.3 million. Knowing he'd have plenty to say, we invited Attard to join us on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He admitted that saying goodbye to the best horse he has ever trained was difficult. "Well, right now it's extremely difficult, no doubt...

Kevin Attard already knows it will be difficult, going back home to his barn at Woodbine and seeing an empty stall where stable star Moira (Ghostzapper) has been a steady presence for the past four years. The Canadian Horse of the Year and millionaire will perform in what will likely be her last dance in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Saturday before she goes through the ring on Nov. 4 at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. "This is probably one of the hardest things I've done in...

Perhaps done in by a two-week turnaround when just beaten in the July 20 Woodbine Oaks, Siena Farm and WinStar Farm's Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) proved possibly the biggest beneficiary of the six-day postponement of the C$1-million King's Plate, clawing her way past heavily favored My Boy Prince (Cairo Prince) in the final 40 yards. The $375,000 OBS April breezer was off at 9-1 in the King's Plate--a race in which the fillies had more than held their own against their male counterparts--and took up a forward position from between horses...