Page 5 - May 2007 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, May 2007 5
Trainer John Attfield at Fort Erie
John Attfield goes it alone
By Harlan Abbey
Ninety-nine percent of backstretch workers would appreciate a leg-up to help them move forward in the competitive world of horse racing.
Count John Attfield, son of famed Canadian trainer Roger Attfield, in that one percent minority.
"If it wasn't for Richard Hurst, I'd still be a free-lance exercise rider at Woodbine," said the 41-year-old younger Attfield, who is training a stable of ten Thoroughbreds -- six of them owned by Hurst -- at Fort Erie. However, he added, "I always wanted to be a trainer -- but I didn't want it to be a case of my father giving me a couple of nice horses so I could get started on the right foot."
"I could see from the first time he galloped a horse for me that a good horseman he was," explained Hurst. "He asked me what I wanted him to do -- and he did it! And I just knew him as 'John' at first. I didn't know he was Roger Attfield's son until much later; but if Roger Attfield was my father, I'd want everyone to know it!"
John Attfield took out his trainer's license last September, after some 20 years of working for not only his famous father, but France's noted Andre Fabre, American steeplechase great Mikey Smithwick, and as one of two assistant trainers for Scott Fairlie the last two years.
There also was a nine-year period when John left horse racing entirely, traveling the world and managing time share resorts in Indonesia and Antigua among other exotic locations. "But race horses were in my blood," he admitted.
"I was always too big to think about becoming a jockey," he continued. "And for my father I was mainly a groom. But in Europe, it's completely different. You groom your four horses, you ride them at exercise, you 'live' with them. And the training there is so much more relaxed. You ride the horses to the training gallops, then work them, then ride them back, you're on their backs about 90 minutes. Here in North America, you're always rushed because they have to get the track ready for racing in the after-
noon.
"In Europe, the horses are much more relaxed so they don't need a lot of the equip- ment we use like tongue ties and nose bands, which give you more control. I think the way we have to rush the horses leads to more stress on them, mentally as well as physically, and why so many of them develop ulcers.
"Happily, Fort Erie is much closer to the European way of doing things than Woodbine. It's much more peaceful and quiet. If I ever develop a horse that has the talent to run at Woodbine
regularly, I'd still stable him and train him at Fort Erie." John Attfield gallops all his own horses; six are owned by Hurst, three by Gary Chudobiak's Circle J Ranch and a two-year-old Northern Afleet filly owned by Terry Russo. He also rides "a few 'nut cases' for other trainers." "I'll do the galloping and the early fitness work," he added, "but I'm too tall and heavy for serious works. And besides, the jockeys have to get used to them before they ride them in races." He plans to use Cory Clark and
Chris Griffith as his main riders.
John said he never galloped any of his fathers eight
Prince of Wales Stakes winners while working for him, but he did groom one POW winner, Ablo, multiple stakes winner Noble Stella and three-year-old champion Palladio. The best horses he's ridden were for Fabre, in France, including champion Zafonic and Archangue, the 99-to-1 winner of the Breeders Cup Classic -- "and I didn't even have my maximum $2 bet on him!"
Young Attfield readily admits he doesn't have any horses of that caliber in his
present stable. "If one of
the two-year-olds became
a stakes class horse it'd be a dream come true, but you can't waste your time dreaming about it. Most of our horses are maidens or eligible for 'non-winners of two' lifetime."
The "stable star" is Gold Max, a four-year-old who broke his maiden at the $10,000 level at Woodbine and added several seconds and thirds. He's a sprinter who should start early in the Fort's 110th season. Gogettumbull, who was "big and gangly" at two,
has smoothed out this year and did well in a start at Tampa Bay Downs at the $25,000 level. The other horses' talents still have to be proven.
"Richard, Gary and Tony all are knowledgeable, realistic owners who'll allow me to put their horses in the right spots," John Attfield declared. "When you can do that, then your win and in-the-money percentages will be respectable."
Beth Hancock, Agent
Accepting horses for the following sales:
Keeneland September Yearlings (Closes May 1) CTHS September Yearlings (Closes May 31)
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