Each photograph, whether vivid in colour or black and white, frayed and softened by the years, carried Roger Attfield back to one of the most treasured moments of a magnificent life in horse racing.
It was not something he had planned, to open the box of pictures and newspaper clippings from his early Thoroughbred days, and in doing so, taking himself back to his formative years as a young horseman.
Regardless of what prompted the moment, Attfield, regarded as one of the sport’s elite trainers – found immense joy in revisiting each image and headline.
“I recently looked at some photos that I hadn’t seen for a very long time,” recalled the 86-year-old. “I was sorting through some boxes and photos and newspaper articles and came across a lot of things that sparked my memory.”
One of those memories dated back 50 years.
Following a turn as a steeplechase rider and successful career as an international show jumper, Attfield, born in Newbury, England, immigrated to Canada in 1970.
A year later, he began his training career at Roy Kennedy’s Gateway Farms in Milton, ON. In 1975, he took the reins as head trainer of Lt.-Col. Charles (Bud) Baker’s Norcliffe Stable.
Among the horses under Attfield’s care was the impeccably bred Norcliffe, an $80,000 purchase by Baker – then chairman of the Ontario Jockey Club – at the 1974 Saratoga Yearling Sale.
“I’m at Payson Park here in Florida, where I was introduced to Norcliffe in 1974 when I brought him down here as a yearling turning 2," said Attfield. "Back then, I was getting on my horses, so there was Norcliffe and two others at that time, for Colonel Baker, who I had just started to work for privately.”
Roger Attfield and Norcliffe (courtesy Roger Attfield)
The young conditioner was suitably impressed with the E.P. Taylor-bred son of Buckpasser, who sired the 1975 Queen's Plate winner, L'Enjoleur.
“He was a very well-bred horse,” said Attfield, of the dark bay who was out of the Northern Dancer mare Drama School. “He was broken at Colonel Baker’s farm. We then brought him to Florida to get him ready – I believe it was around early November – and I would get on him. We stayed patient with him through the early training days and you could see he was a very talented horse, but he was also very nonchalant.”
Attfield knew he had a good horse. Just how good, he wasn’t yet certain.
One thing, however, was clear. “I knew he could run all day – the farther, the better,” said Attfield.
That confidence grew with every race Norcliffe contested.
One of his most impressive performances came in the 1975 Coronation Futurity, where he was timed in 1:49.1 for 1 1/8 miles – a record that still stands for the 2-year-old stakes event and a key steppingstone to The King’s Plate.
The dream of winning Canada’s most famous race – The Queen’s Plate at the time – had taken root the moment Attfield watched Almoner, a dark bay son of Victoria Park, capture the 1¼-mile classic in 1970.
“When I first came over to Woodbine, I remember seeing Almoner win the Plate that year," said Attfield. "I was at my barn, hanging out on the lawn, and that afternoon, after the race, Almoner had to walk by me to go to the test barn.”
The scene left a lasting impression.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I am going to win that race one day,’" said Attfield. "I can remember that moment as if it were yesterday.”
QUEEN'S PLATE WORRIES
Norcliffe's Queen's Plate program line.
On June 26, 1976, the day of the 117th running of the “Gallop for the Guineas,” Norcliffe, who had broken his maiden by 16 lengths a year earlier, was tabbed as the 9-5 morning line choice in the race that drew 11 hopefuls, including a pair of coupled entries.
While he was unwavering in his belief that Norcliffe had the strength, stamina and skill to win, Attfield did have concerns heading into the Plate.
A bruised foot had forced a change to the colt’s training regimen.
“It put me off key a little bit on how to bring him to the race,” Attfield said at the time. “I had to race him three weeks in a row at a mile and a 16th, which usually wouldn’t be my ideal way of bringing a horse up to the Plate.”
Who would ride the horse in the Plate was also a question mark.
A young Jeff Fell – he turned 20 six days before the race – had burst onto scene in the winter of 1974 and quickly gained attention for his ability.
“It was interesting because we had Jeff riding the horse from day one,” said Attfield. “They got along very well together. We had quite a bit of a discussion as to whether we should change to a more seasoned journeyman rider for the Plate. But we decided that Jeff deserved to ride the horse, who had been running well for him.”
Moments before Fell climbed aboard Norcliffe – wearing silks of blue, red yoke, red panel, red sleeves and a red cap – Attfield pulled him aside with a reminder.
“I remember stressing to Jeff before the race that [Avelino] Gomez would definitely be on the lead," said Attfield. "I figured Military Bearing might not be able to get the mile and a quarter and I knew Norcliffe would be able to. So, I told Jeff not to panic and not to stir Norcliffe up until the three-eighths pole.”
When that point arrived, Attfield briefly feared the worst.
“Jeff started getting a bit more aggressive with the horse at that point, but nothing was happening. And I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ They finally came running and Avelino tried to take them to the middle of the track and force him down along the inside, but Jeff didn’t fall for that.”
Norcliffe, sent off as the 8-5 favourite, collared Military Bearing 100 yards from the wire and drew off to win by a half-length.
CHUFFED HIS PARENTS WERE THERE TO SEE IT
Attfield shared the moment with his parents, who had flown in from England to be there.
“My mother and father had come to spend some time with me and combined it with The Queen’s Plate," said Attfield. "They got in the day before the race – the flight had to go to Detroit for some reason – and had to take a bus from Detroit to Toronto. They were there for the Plate. They were jet-lagged, but that all went away quickly during the race.
“I was obviously delighted we had got it done. I hadn’t been in North America for that long and only started training in 1971, so that was a big thing to win the race. I was so pleased that my parents were there to see it.”
Asked who was more nervous during the race – himself or his jockey – Attfield eventually settled on Fell.
“I was [confident]," said Attfield. "It was just a question of Jeff being able to ride the right way and Gomez not being able to outfox him. It was pretty nerve-racking, for sure. Jeff actually threw up on the backside when he pulled up Norcliffe after the race.”
Dressed regally in top hat and tails, Attfield walked Norcliffe into the winner’s circle, drawing cheers from the thousands in attendance and from the Governor General of Canada at the time, Jules Léger – the monarch’s official representative – who was on hand that Saturday afternoon at Woodbine.
It was a far cry from the look Attfield had sported months earlier in Florida.
“When I came down to Payson Park, I lived in the tack room next to the stall of Norcliffe," said Attfield. "I turned into a bit of a hippie during that time. The weather was excellent, so I was always in shorts and a t-shirt. I grew this big beard and one day, Colonel Baker came down. He was a military man and he wasn’t fond of facial hair. I remember him taking one look at me and he was probably thinking, ‘What is going on with this fellow?’
Before returning north, Attfield shaved the beard, leaving only the moustache. Eventually, that too disappeared.
What never changed was his ability to bring out the best in his horses.
THE FIRST OF EIGHT PLATES
Attfield would go on to win seven more editions of the Plate, including a trio of Canadian Triple Crowns - With Approval in 1989, Izvestia in 1990 and Peteski in 1993.
He also holds the distinction of being enshrined in multiple Halls of Fame. In 1999, Attfield was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Twelve years later, he was welcomed into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 2012, he was welcomed into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Norcliffe (courtesy Roger Attfield)
Norcliffe compiled an equally distinguished résumé.
He was named Canada’s Horse of the Year in 1976. The following season, he was crowned champion older horse and achieved a feat unmatched in Canadian racing – winning the richest race for Canadians at ages 2, 3 and 4: the Coronation Futurity, the Queen’s Plate and the Canadian Maturity. He also remains the last horse to notch the Futurity-Plate double.
Nine of his 14 victories came in stakes races. He won the Carling O’Keefe Invitational Handicap on two occasions and finished first, second or third in 25 of his 33 starts. Norcliffe also holds Woodbine’s old dirt track record for 1 1/2 miles, 2:29.1, set in 1977 while winning the Carling O’Keefe Handicap. His reputation as a world-class competitor was further galvanized in the Grade 3 Nassau County Stakes Handicap at Belmont, NY, when he was beaten less than a length by the brilliant Forego.
Norcliffe’s legacy continued at stud in Florida and Kentucky. He ranked as North America’s leading juvenile sire by wins and second by earnings in 1981, later surpassing Nodouble as Florida’s top sire.
Half a century after that magical Plate victory, Attfield, a winner of nearly 2,050 races, revisited many of those moments through the photographs and clippings he had saved.
Fittingly, he did so at Payson Park – more than 2,250 kilometres south of Woodbine Racetrack – where Norcliffe’s journey to Plate glory began.
“It’s a long bloody time, isn’t it?” Attfield said with a laugh. “In many ways, that first Plate win doesn’t seem so long ago. That was like a dream, to win one. To have won eight – that was never on my mind. I didn’t have a particular reason for wanting to look at those photos, but I am certainly glad that I did.”
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