Roger Attfield a Legend

By Steve Buffery

A few weeks ago, thoroughbred training legend Roger Attfield was working around his off-season home in Stuart, Florida when he started feeling a pain around his midsection.

“I’d been lifting some heavy stuff and doing a lot of landscaping with lumber and I thought maybe I was getting a hernia,” Attfield said. “But (the pain) kept on going. And then, all of a sudden, I started getting these shooting pains and I thought, ‘That’s not right.’

“So, they put me in the CAT scan and I was operated on that afternoon and I was out the next day,” the 86-year-old Hall of Famer said. “(And the doctors told me) as long as I didn’t lift anything heavy for two weeks, I was good to go. So, I’ve tried to behave myself and everything’s good.”

Attfield laughed looking back at his recent health scare.

“It was kind of a surprise because usually people get appendicitis before they’re 86 years of age,” he said with a chuckle. “But, otherwise, I’m in pretty good shape.”

Which is good news indeed. Other than having an inflamed appendix removed, Attfield has enjoyed a fairly quiet off-season, including a short holiday at the Caribbean island of Antigua, though his five-year-old mare Ready for Shirl (now being trained by Dallas Stewart) did run in the Grade 2 Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf Invitational at Gulfstream on Jan. 24. For Attfield, the upcoming 2026 racing season will mark the U.S. and Canadian Racing Hall of Fame member’s 56^th year of racing at Woodbine and while he still feels good physically, Attfield has some major decisions to make this year.

“I’m getting up there now,” said the native of Newbury, England, while chatting on the phone from a Home Depot parking lot near his Florida home. “I’m 86 years of age and I can’t train the way I was when I was riding and everything. So, I think it’s time I cut back.”

What that means, Attfield isn’t exactly sure. Last season, the winner of an amazing 2,038 races during his distinguished career, posted a mere 29 starts at the west Toronto track and he’s not sure if the number will increase this season, though he does plan to be back at home at Woodbine early in May, as usual.

“I’ve cut back training considerably, but I’m looking forward to the season,” he said. “I’m on the board of the HBPA up there and I’m always fighting for everything that I can do to help the industry and help the young trainers coming along. I think that’s kind of important right now.”

Looking back, Attfield acknowledges that he feels a tremendous sense of pride – as a thoroughbred trainer and as a person who has done his best to promote Canadian horse racing. He’s been a wonderful ambassador in that regard.

“Yeah, I am actually (very proud),” he said. “Outside of winning another Queen’s Plate (now King’s Plate), there’s nothing I can do to prove anything else. I’ve done just about everything I could do and I’ve set records all over the place and there’s not really much left.”

What about winning a record ninth King’s Plate? (Attfield is tied with Harry Giddings Jr. with eight).

“If it came to that, that would be good,” he said.

 One would need a book to formally list all of Attfield’s accomplishments on the track.

“I’ve had so many horses that were really nice horses,” he said. “I don’t really have a specific favorite. I guess With Approval would be very high on that list.”

Owned and bred by Kinghaven Farms, the son of Caro out of Passing Mood, won the 1989 Canadian Triple Crown (Queen’s Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes and Breeders’ Stakes) and also enjoyed a highly impressive four-year-old season - capturing three major stakes races, including the 1990 Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont Park in a world record 2:10.26 over 1&3/8 miles. He also finished second at the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Turf and Arlington Mile.

“There’s just been so many nice horses,” said Attfield, looking back at his career. “I had some bad luck in the Breeders’ Cups. Peteski was going to be the favorite, or second favorite (in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Classic) and had to be scratched three days before (because of a wretched ankle). And Play the King was the same way actually. I went to the Breeders’ and he was going to be the favorite, or second favorite, and I felt very strongly about him and then he fractured his hind leg three days before that race.

“I had two or three seconds and thirds in Breeders’ Cups and finally did win one (with the Charles Fipke-owned Perfect Shirl, a 27-1 upset in the 2011 Filly & Mare Turf), which was good.”

Whatever Attfield decides to do in the future, he certainly won’t be leaving the sport completely.

“I’ve been very successful buying yearlings throughout the years and I might be interested in doing some things in an advisory capacity,” he said. “There are a few options I have to stay in the industry, as it were. And I’ll still be breeding and owning some horses.”

Unfortunately, one thing Attfield won’t be doing is riding his pony around the track anymore.

“I’m good. I feel really well,” he said. “But my equilibrium is not very good and I stopped riding my pony last year, and I find it kind of difficult training when I’m not with the horses. I’ve always been so hands-on.”

While Attfield’s professional plans are somewhat in the air at this point, he does have some personal goals for 2026, including returning to his native England after a long hiatus.

“My sister (June) comes over to see me every summer and I haven’t been home now, she told me, for 17 years,” said Attfield. “So, I promised them that I would go next Christmas.

“She’s too much,” Roger added. “(June) is 18 months older than me and she’s actually on a cruise on the Danube right now. She’s gone to a different country every year and she’s still going strong. She’s amazing.”

The same can be said for her kid brother. Whatever Attfield decides to do this season, you can be sure the Woodbine racing community will be happy to see him around the track.