Roger Laurin (born 1936 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

) is a trainer of

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

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, and ...

Numbered Account, the 1971

American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly The American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to a female horse in Thoroughbred flat racing Horse racing is an equestrianism, equestrian performance activity, typically involving ...

, 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 Canadian jockey and Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. He was best known for training Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in 1973. Life and career Laurin was born in Joliette, Quebe ...

. 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 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 T ...

. By 1966, Laurin was training for major owners such as Harry Guggenheim's

Cain Hoy Stable Cain Hoy Stable was a Thoroughbred racing stable and horse breeding operation with training facilities in Columbia, South Carolina, and Kissimmee, Florida. It was owned by Harry Guggenheim, who also raced horses in Europe. A founding member of t ...

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 induct ...

, 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 ...

, 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 ...

, a member of

The Jockey Club The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, among ...

and a co-owner and Chairman of the

Board of Directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

Suffolk Downs Suffolk Downs is a former Thoroughbred race track in East Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The track opened in 1935 after being built by Joseph A. Tomasello for a cost of $2 million. It was sold in May 2017 to a developer who plans to cre ...

racetrack in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. 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 succ ...

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. The trophy is made by a few small selected A ...

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 The Belmont Stakes is an American Graded stakes race, Grade I stakes Thoroughbred racing, race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over the worldwide classic distance of . Colt (horseracing), Colt ...

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 primari ...

, 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 Stud farm, 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 o ...

. 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 "Midsummer Derby" and is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds accor ...

, 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 rab ...

of Thoroughbreds. In 1992, while racing on a very limited basis, he won the

Victoriana Stakes The Victoriana Stakes is a thoroughbred horse race run annually in early to mid August at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. An Ontario Sire Stakes, it is a restricted race for fillies and mares, age three and older. Contested over a ...

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 track ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

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, Saratoga Springs, New York (state), New York, United States. Opened in 1863, it is often considered to be the oldest major sporting v ...

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) to the U.S. border. Its most imp ...

in August 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurin, Roger 1936 births Living people Canadian racehorse trainers American racehorse trainers Sportspeople from Miami Ice hockey people from Montreal