Roger Laurin (born 1936 in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
) is a
trainer of
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...
racehorses in the United States and Canada. He has trained
Champions
A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...
Numbered Account, the 1971
American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, and
Chief's Crown
Chief's Crown (April 7, 1982 – April 29, 1997) was an American-bred Thoroughbred race horse who won the 1984 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Two-Year-Old Male Horse. He later became a successful sire.
Ba ...
, the 1984
American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt The American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971.
The award originated in 1936 when the '' Daily Racing F ...
and
Breeders' Cup Juvenile
The Breeders' Cup Juvenile is a Thoroughbred horse race for 2-year-old colts and geldings raced on dirt. It is held annually in late October or early November at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup W ...
winner.
A family business
Roger Laurin grew up in the Thoroughbred racing business as the son of
U.S. Racing Hall of Fame trainer
Lucien Laurin
Lucien Laurin (March 18, 1912 – June 26, 2000) was a French-Canadian jockey and Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. He was best known for training Secretariat (horse), Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United Sta ...
. He came into prominence in 1964 when he took charge of the race conditioning of a filly named
Miss Cavandish. Purchased by Harry S. Nichols for $1,500 because she had a severe "toeing in" problem, under Laurin Miss Cavandish became one of the top two fillies racing in the United States in 1964, finishing second in the balloting for 1964
American Champion 3-Year-Old Filly The American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to a female horse in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971.
The award originated in 1936 when both ...
honors behind future
U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee
Tosmah
Tosmah (1961–1992) was a champion Thoroughbred race horse. She was the leading American filly of her generation at both two and three years of age.
Background
Tosmah was bred in Kentucky by Eugene Mori. Her sire was the great Tim Tam, by ...
.
By 1966, Laurin was training for major owners such as
Harry Guggenheim's Cain Hoy Stable and
Penny Chenery's Meadow Stable. In 1971, he was offered the job as head trainer for
Ogden Phipps
Ogden Phipps (November 26, 1908 – April 21, 2002) was an American stockbroker, court tennis champion and Hall of Fame member, thoroughbred horse racing executive and owner/breeder, and an art collector and philanthropist. In 2001, he was induc ...
, a major stable owner and part of the
Phipps family
The Phipps family of the United States is a prominent American family that descends from Henry Phipps Jr. (1839–1930), a businessman and philanthropist. His father was an English shoemaker who immigrated in the early part of the 19th century t ...
, one of America's most prominent racing families. At the time, Laurin had conditioned future Hall of Fame inductee
Riva Ridge
Riva Ridge (April 13, 1969 – April 21, 1985) was a Thoroughbred racehorse, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in 1972.
Often remembered simply as a stablemate of Secretariat, Riva Ridge was a successful racehorse in his own rig ...
for racing up to the week before he broke his maiden in his two-year-old debut. It was on his recommendation that Penny Chenery hired his father to replace as the Meadow Stable trainer. In addition to his duties for Ogden Phipps, Laurin had been training horses owned by
James Moseley
James Willett Moseley (August 4, 1931 – November 16, 2012) was an American observer, author, and commentator on the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Over his nearly sixty-year career, he exposed UFO hoaxes and engineered hoaxes o ...
, a member of
The Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is the breed registry for Thoroughbred horses in the United States and Canada. It is dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing and fulfills that mandate by serving many segments of the industry through its s ...
and a co-owner and Chairman of the
Board of Directors of
Suffolk Downs racetrack in
Boston, Massachusetts. For Moseley, he most notably conditioned the filly
Drumtop, who won numerous top stakes and broke three
track records
Track Record (a.k.a. Track Records) was founded in 1966 in London by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, then managers of the rock group The Who. It was one of the first British-owned independent record labels in the United Kingdom. The most succe ...
in 1971. For Ogden Phipps, Laurin trained
Numbered Account to a 1971
Eclipse Award
The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse.
An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division that is made by a few small selected American ...
as the Champion Two-Year-Old Filly.
In the late 1970s, Laurin was training for owners such as
Reginald N. Webster, a longtime stable owner for whom Lucien Laurin had won the
Belmont Stakes with
Amberoid
Amberoid (foaled 1963 in Kentucky) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1966 American Classic, the Belmont Stakes.
Amberoid was conditioned for racing by future Hall of Fame trainer Lucien Laurin and ridden primaril ...
, and for the American racing division of Canadian
E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm
Windfields Farm was a six square kilometre (1,500 acre) Thoroughbred horse breeding farm that was founded by businessman E. P. Taylor in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
Origin
The first stable and breeding operation of E. P. Taylor originated w ...
. In 1984, he conditioned Chief's Crown to an outstanding season of racing in which he won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and was voted American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. After another good year in 1985 with Chief’s Crown finishing 3-2-3 in the
U.S. Triple Crown series, then winning the
Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap
The Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap was a Thoroughbred horse race first run in September 1973 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. A Grade 1 race for horses 3 years old and up, it was raced over a distance of miles on a dirt track.
The race c ...
and
Travers Stakes
The Travers Stakes is an American Graded stakes race, Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is nicknamed the "Mid-Summer Derby" and is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds acco ...
, Laurin retired. He did maintain his trainer’s license while devoting much of his time to the
breeding
Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant.
Breeding may refer to:
* Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and ra ...
of Thoroughbreds. In 1992, while racing on a very limited basis, he won the
Victoriana Stakes at
Woodbine Racetrack
Woodbine Racetrack is a race track for Thoroughbred horse racing in the Etobicoke area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Woodbine Entertainment Group, Woodbine Racetrack manages and hosts Canada's most famous race, the King's Plate. The tra ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
with a horse he bred and owned. In August 2006, he returned again to race at
Saratoga Race Course
Saratoga Race Course is a Thoroughbred horse racing track located on Union Avenue in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. Opened in 1863, it is often considered to be the oldest major sporting venue of any kind in the country, but is actu ...
with two of his own horses.
Bloodhorse.com - August 13, 2006
/ref>
Still maintaining some involvement with the race conditioning of Thoroughbreds, Laurin had a stable under his care at Fort Erie Racetrack
Fort Erie Race Track is a horse racing facility in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, that opened on June 16, 1897. The racetrack is often referred to as "the border oval" because of the track's proximity (barely a mile as the crow flies) to the U.S. bo ...
in August 2011.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurin, Roger
1936 births
Living people
Canadian horse trainers
American horse trainers
Sportspeople from Miami
Sportspeople from Montreal