John Mattine off to a hot start this year, helping to keep the family name going

By Steve Buffery - Photo Mike Burns

Fresh blood is a good thing in any business, but there’s also something to be said for tradition and longevity. Especially in thoroughbred horse racing.

John Mattine is an example of a family that lives and breathes horse racing - a clan that, over the years, has helped keep the sport alive in Ontario, through good times and bad. A trainer at Woodbine since 2009, John hails from a family who started in the business in the 1960’s when his grandfather Michele (Pops) Mattine – an immigrant from Italy – started working at race tracks around southern Ontario in the 1950s’, becoming a hot walker for legendary trainer Lou Cavalaris Jr. in the 1960’s, and then worked for the OJC as the gate man in the afternoon for horses coming on or off the gap during racing.

“I ran his bets, underaged!” said John. “Cigar Sam took the bets knowing that it was for Pops, my grandfather.

“One day I got pinched,” John added. “But it was worth it, always.”

Michele’s son Tony, John’s father, followed his dad into the sport and became a jockey for a brief time in 1961, though he was forced off the saddle early because of weight issues.

“Italian food!” John said.

Tony worked for some of the big trainers of the day, mostly for Gordon Huntley, before breaking out on his own in the early 1970’s. Tony enjoyed a fantastic career as a trainer, posting 577 victories, 501 seconds and 378 thirds in 3,419 starts with earnings of $11,232,574 (US). John took over from his dad in 2009 after Tony passed away.

“My dad did everything from the ground up, including working the starting gate,” said John. “He deserves to be in the (Canadian Horse Racing) Hall of Fame. In my eyes, he IS in the Hall of Fame.”

John's older brother Mike is also a highly successful trainer at Woodbine with a career mark of 455 wins, 497 seconds and 529 thirds in 4,101 starts.

“Mike was a natural,” said John, adding that his father was happy with Mike forging a career at the track but not his youngest son.

“’One’s enough’, he would say,” said John, adding that his dad urged him to become a veterinarian. After graduating from the University of Toronto, John thought about going to veterinarian school, but wasn’t sure, so he took off for a year and worked in Australia for legendary conditioner John Nicholls at their stable at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

As any trainer will tell you, horse racing is a tough business, but John is off to a great start this season at Woodbine, with four wins and two thirds in 11 starts. His three-year-old gelding Quadzilla, owned by RCC Racing Stable Ltd, is already two-for-two while two other RCC Racing starters – four-year-old chestnut gelding Magic Power (RCC Stables) and his three-year-old grey filly Velocita – have also recorded victories this year.

“I love it,” said John, when asked about his early success. “It’s fantastic starting the year off that way. But that’s hard to do when you stay in Ontario (in the off-season). It’s a little easier when you go out of town. But we train appropriately.”

John held a breakfast meeting with his workers in Caledon East at the start of the season and preached “positivity”.

“I said, ‘Ok guys, this year, let’s keep it more positive. Get the negativity out of the barn.’ So, they came in feeling a little better and we’re trying to keep it at that level,” John said.

John has recorded 176 victories with 199 seconds and 174 thirds in his career, including winning the OLG Kenora Stakes presented by the HBPA of Ontario Stakes in 2015 for owners RCC Racing Stable and Rocco Forgione. That was a sweet win but, for John, the highlight of his career was when his filly Emmeline finished second in the 2021 Woodbine Oaks - 1 ¼ lengths behind Kevin Attard’s Munnyfor Ro. Emmeline, who had been sick in the weeks leading up to the Oaks, led at the top of the stretch to the 1/8^th pole before being passed. John looks back at that race not as a disappointment, but as a triumph.

“You got a $16,000 horse that ran second in the Oaks, you can’t go wrong,” said John. “So, sure, I was happy.”

Emmeline, co-owned by RCC Stable and Realm Racing Stables, also finished second in the Bison City Stakes three weeks later, earning more than $300,000 in her career. Sadly, Emmeline died of Potomac Fever while in foal in 2023.

“That’s one that stays with me,” said John. “I took care of her. I thought she’d be a great broodmare too. A beautiful, kind mare. She was a sweetheart.”

John lives in Mono, Ont., with his family and plans to keep training “as long as the good Lord wants me to.”

“It’s always been tough, racing. But you have to have a passion for it, it’s not a job. It’s hard. It’s seven days a week,” said the veteran trainer.

“I mean, some days I wish I was a vet,” John added, with a laugh.

John’s motto has always been: “Do what’s right for the horses.” And that’s put him in pretty good stead over the years.

“That’s first and foremost. Without the horses we’re not here. No horses, no racing. People forget that we’re here for the horses. It’s beautiful to be around them,” he added.

John will be hoping to record his fifth victory of the season this Saturday with his three-year-old colt Metro King, owned by Bhutta Racing Inc., entered in a maiden optional claiming race with a purse of $49,200. His brother Mike has two entries on Saturday, a card featuring a second showdown this season between 2025 King’s Plate winner Mansetti (owned by Al and Bill Ulwelling and trained by Kevin Attard) and multiple stakes winner Paramount Prince (owned by Michael Langlois and Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse) – an allowance optional claiming race with a purse of $120,700