That meant giving up my horses and clients. I felt like I was spinning my tires a little bit. “I didn’t have a ton of horses in my barn as much as I loved Turf Paradise, it was a struggle financially. “I think I was finishing my fourth or fifth year training on my own.”ĭiodoro offered him a job. “He sent me a couple horses to run in Canada,” Rob said. That’s where he had the good fortune of meeting trainer Robertino Diodoro in 2014. Like many other trainers at Assiniboia, he wintered in Turf Paradise in Phoenix. His first winner was a $5,000 claimer, Forgotten Battle, September 3, 2010, at Assiniboia Downs. He returned to Canada and cobbled together a stable of 15 to 20 horses. “He’s a legend up in Canada, and he had a small stable,” Rob said. Rob began working for trainer Bert Blake. Then he bolted back to the track for life. I went to the University of Manitoba for a year and a half.” “I left the job, and with everything I made, I bought a horse,” Rob said. Asked what he learned from him, Rob replied, “All the fundamentals-taking care of the horses, the legs, keeping track of the horses.”Īfter he graduated from high school, he took a job in a steel factory. He worked summers for Jack Robertson when he was 16 and 17. Rob’s journey from Portage la Prairie in Manitoba to New York had plenty of interesting stops. “He wasn’t really involved in horses, but he’s been really supportive of me.” “Sometimes he was gone for a week,” Rob said. Rob’s father, Jim, was an undercover investigator for the Royal Canadian Mountain Police for 30 years in the province of Manitoba. He’s got a great wife, and they’re a great team.” “To be that successful at the New York tracks, we’re very proud of him. She couldn’t be prouder of her only child, and she saw his love of horses as a child. I had a pretty good background from my mom.” I’d be in the track kitchen reading the Form. “She owned a couple of horses with trainer Jack Robertson. When she retired, she had all the time she wanted with horses. Rob’s equine education began with his mother, Tanis, who owned a couple of horses while working at a bank. Rob is very realistic about the horses we have and where they need to race to be successful.” He’s really good at reading a condition book. It’s so true-how they train, how their legs are wrapped. Asked why he is successful, she said, “I think because he treats each horse individually. He is strengthened by his wife/assistant trainer/best friend Brittney, who is proud of Rob’s horsemanship. Rob, who is 37 years old, ranked 37th nationally in earnings last year and is 37th this year through the end of June. He’s already topped $2 million in the first six months of this year. Rob’s earnings grew from $1.8 million in 2019 to $2 million in 2020 and $3.9 million in 2021. At the current Belmont Park Summer Meet, he is tied for sixth with David Donk. 1 stakes, the Coaching Club American Oaks, with Maracuja. He was good enough to finish tied for seventh with Brad Cox in the 2021 Saratoga Meet, when he won his first Gr. Three decades later, Rob is a rising star in New York-a young conditioner steeped in old school horsemanship with an uncanny knack of claiming horses.
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