Roger Laurin (born 1936 in Montreal, Quebec) is a trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses in the United States and Canada. He has trained Champions Numbered Account, the 1971 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, [1] and Chief's Crown, the 1984 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner. [2]
Roger Laurin grew up in the Thoroughbred racing business as the son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame trainer Lucien Laurin. 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.
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, a major stable owner and part of the Phipps family, one of America's most prominent racing families. [3] At the time, Laurin had conditioned future Hall of Fame inductee Riva Ridge 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. [4] In addition to his duties for Ogden Phipps, Laurin had been training horses owned by James Moseley, a member of The Jockey Club 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 in 1971. For Ogden Phipps, Laurin trained Numbered Account to a 1971 Eclipse Award 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, and for the American racing division of Canadian E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm. 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 and Travers Stakes, Laurin retired. He did maintain his trainer’s license while devoting much of his time to the breeding of Thoroughbreds. In 1992, while racing on a very limited basis, he won the Victoriana Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto with a horse he bred and owned. In August 2006, he returned again to race at Saratoga Race Course with two of his own horses. [5]
Still maintaining some involvement with the race conditioning of Thoroughbreds, Laurin had a stable under his care at Fort Erie Racetrack in August 2011.
Secretariat, also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who was the ninth winner of the American Triple Crown, setting and still holding the fastest time record in all three of its constituent races. He is widely considered to be the greatest racehorse of all time. He became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and his record-breaking victory in the Belmont Stakes, which he won by 31 lengths, is often considered the greatest race ever run by a thoroughbred racehorse. During his racing career, he won five Eclipse Awards, including Horse of the Year honors at ages two and three. He was nominated to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974. In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, Secretariat was second to Man o' War.
Lucien Laurin was a French-Canadian jockey and Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. He was best known for training Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in 1973.
Helen Bates "Penny" Chenery was an American sportswoman who bred and owned Secretariat, the 1973 winner of the Triple Crown. The youngest of three children, she graduated from The Madeira School in 1939 and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College, then studied at the Columbia Business School, where she met her future husband, John Tweedy, Sr., a Columbia Law School graduate. In March 2011, Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, awarded Chenery an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Christopher Chenery was an American engineer, businessman, and the owner/breeder of record for Thoroughbred horse racing's U.S. Triple Crown champion Secretariat.
Riva Ridge was a Thoroughbred racehorse, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in 1972.
Wheatley Stable was the nom de course for the thoroughbred horse racing partnership formed by Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden Livingston Mills. The horses were raised at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky.
Ogden Phipps 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 inducted into the International Court Tennis Hall of Fame.
Storm Flag Flying was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in 2002.
The Cowdin Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually from 1923 through 2005 at Aqueduct Racetrack and at Belmont Park which at one time was a Grade 1 event.
The National Stallion Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race held sixty-two times between 1898 and 1971. Inaugurated as the National Stallion Race at Morris Park Racecourse in The Bronx, the event was open to horses of either sex until 1948 when it became a race exclusively for colts and geldings and a National Stallion Stakes was created. Contested on dirt at a distance of five furlongs, from 1905 onward it was hosted by Belmont Park in Elmont, New York except for 1963 through 1967 when it was run at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York.
Harvey Guy Bedwell was an American Hall of Fame trainer and owner of Thoroughbredracehorses who was the first trainer to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
Edward Albert "Eddie" Neloy was an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. At age fourteen, he began working at a racetrack then joined the United States Army during World War II. During the intense action in the Italian Campaign following Operation Shingle, Neloy was seriously wounded in Anzio and lost an eye.
Secretariat is a 2010 American biographical sports drama film produced and released by Walt Disney Pictures, written by Mike Rich and Sheldon Turner based largely on William Nack's 1975 book Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, with music by Nick Glennie-Smith and directed by Randall Wallace. The film chronicles the life of Thoroughbred race horse Secretariat, winner of the Triple Crown in 1973. Diane Lane plays Secretariat's owner, Penny Chenery, who takes over the Doswell, Virginia, stables of her ailing father Christopher Chenery despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge. With the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin, she navigates the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and widely considered the greatest racehorse of all time.
James P. Conway was an American Hall of Fame trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing who trained forty-three stakes winners including five Champions and a winner of two American Classic Races.
Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps was an American financier, Thoroughbred racehorse industry executive, and horse breeder. Widely known by the nickname "Dinny," he was chairman of the family's Bessemer Trust until retiring in 1994, and served as its vice chairman.
The Gardenia Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run at Garden State Park Racetrack near Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Created in 1955, the event was the world's richest race for two-year-old fillies with a total purse of US$130,300 in its inaugural year. It was the counterpart to the Garden State Futurity for two-year-old male horses.
Ivan Harris Parke was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and trainer who won more races than any other jockey in the United States in 1923, as an apprentice, and again in 1924 when he also was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings. Parke trained the 1945 Kentucky Derby winner, Hoop Jr. and Jewel's Reward to 1957 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honors.
James Dee "Jimmy" Nichols was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and horseman who, after retiring from race-riding, played a key role in the two U.S. Triple Crown race wins of Risen Star.
The National Stallion Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race for two-year-old fillies held annually for the twenty-four years between 1948 through 1971. It was created as a counterpart to the National Stallion Stakes which was first run in 1898 at Morris Park Racecourse and was open to horses of either sex until 1948 when it became a race exclusively for colts and geldings. Contested on dirt at a distance of five and one half furlongs, the filly division was hosted by Belmont Park in Elmont, New York except for 1963 through 1967 when it was run at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York.
Queen Empress was an American National Champion Thoroughbred racemare bred and raced by the Wheatley Stable of Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden Livingston Mills.