Article published on 30 June 2010
Trainer Seeks Ninth Queens Plate Win with Mobilizer
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The British-born trainer, now 70-years-old, still has the same spring in his step and a twinkle in his eye he had when he launched his training career decades ago, and as such is confident Mobilizer can take on and outlast Saturday's field.
Mobilizer comes from a long line of winners, his sire being talented British thoroughbred Motivator, who won the coveted Epsom Derby in 2005. So of the field in Saturday's Queen's Plate, Mobilizer will no doubt start the race well-backed.
What's more, if Attfield pulls of his record ninth win on Saturday, he'll do it in front of Queen Elizabeth II herself, as the British monarch is on an official trip to Canada and is expected to attend the coveted race for the first time in decades.
Of course, being a true horseman, Attfield, like his contemporaries, won't be thinking about that. Instead, he'll be focused on ensuring that Mobilizer is healthy, happy and raring to go ahead of the Queen's Plate, North America's oldest race.
Attfield won his first Queen's Plate in 1976 with Norcliffe, the first year he entered a horse in the great race. But, as he soon discovered, winning the Queen's Plate is no easy task, and Attfield had to wait 11 years for his next winner.
That came in 1987, when he won with Market Control. Between then and now he has won with With Approval (1989), Izvestia (1990), Alydeed (1992), Peteski (1993), Regal Discovery (1995) and most recently Not Bourbon (2008).
With so many victories under his belt, it's not surprising that Attfield has been named Canada's top trainer seven times in his long and illustrious career, and why in 1999 he was finally inducted into Canada's Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
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