Hall of Famer Roger Attfield Retires From Training at Age 86

Roger Attfield wrote "Hasta la vista!" to a 54-year training career Wednesday, announcing his retirement via a letter to Woodbine Entertainment at age 86, closing a chapter that produced a record-tying eight King's Plates, three Canadian Triple Crown winners, and 2,000 career victories.

"It is with a very heavy heart that I have decided to retire from training," Attfield wrote in his prepared statement. The reason was bluntly physical. "All of my life I have always been a hands-on trainer and now at 86 I can no longer ride out on my pony with sets, and [am] unable to safely inspect them in stalls. Both of these things always helped me understand my horses' needs, mentally and physically, to get the very best from them. No longer being able to perform these duties properly, it's time to say 'Hasta la vista!'"

Born in Newbury, England, Attfield earned a degree in agriculture, specializing in farm management, before beginning his career with horses as a steeplechase rider and as an international show jumper. He moved to Canada in 1970 and took his first training job with Gateway Farms. His ascent through Canadian racing was methodical and then explosive: in 1976, Attfield developed the colt Norcliffe into the first of his eight King's Plate winners and his first Canadian Horse of the Year. According to his Canadian Hall of Fame biography, Attfield's career soared after he took charge of Bud Willmot's powerful stable of Kinghaven Farms in 1985.

Of the seven horses that have won the Canadian Triple Crown, three were trained by Attfield: With Approval in 1989, Izvestia in 1990 and Peteski in 1993. Attfield-conditioned horses won a total of 20 Triple Crown races, including the Prince of Wales Stakes five times and the Breeders' Stakes seven times. He also won the Woodbine Mile in 1990 and 1993, the Woodbine Oaks three times, and the E.P. Taylor Stakes in 2011. His first Breeders' Cup win came in 2011 when Perfect Shirl took the Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs. He won his 2,000th career race in July 2022.

The Florida winter of 2025-26 offered a telling final footnote. Attfield brought only seven horses to Florida for the winter, and after a "small disagreement" over where and when to run them, he sent them to another trainer. "They were all very nice horses, I will miss them, but wish only the very best of luck to all," he wrote.

Retirement from training does not mean an exit from the sport entirely. "My intention is to continue owning and breeding, also consulting and buying. As a director of our local HBPA, I will also continue to fight for everything that will help our industry," Attfield said. He also offered a parting word to the owners who trusted him across five decades: "Throughout the years I have trained for so many great owners whom I would like to say thank you to from the bottom of my heart."

Attfield was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1999 and entered the U.S. National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2012. That same year, he was enshrined in the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. As Attfield himself framed it in his letter, "Having hung my first shingle up when only 17, as a rider and trainer of horses, I feel that 69 years later is a pretty good number of innings.