Barn Tour: Drexler wins 'the hard way' at Woodbine

Martin Drexler stands in second place in the trainer standings at Woodbine, where he finished the last two years. He and Kevin Attard generally are neck and neck behind perennial leader Mark Casse.

His earnings have been in the range of $2.5 million to $4 million the last four years, with a winning percentage right around 20%.

So, as he put it, “it seems like everything is pretty much status quo.”

But there’s always room for improvement.

“Our percentages are just a shade lower, maybe, but I think a lot of that has to be kind of written up as just having to run way too many horses against each other," Drexler told Horse Racing Nation. "We've had a lot of horses running in the same races. You're always running doubles, I think, where the percentages may be a little bit on the lower end. For me, I mean, I like to be in the 20s.”

Another challenge is that “it’s been a little bit tough to get into the upper echelon for me with the younger horses,” Drexler said. “I've been trying to improve my quality of young horses, like a 2-year-old turning 3 and 3-year-olds. And really haven't had a jackpot, where something really pops up that puts me on the map and gets me going that way.

“Everything we've done has been mostly claiming them for $20,000, $40,000, $60,000, in those ranges, and the odd one turns into a little stakes horse or something.”

Drexler said he has about 75 horses in training, a number that remains pretty steady, maybe ranging up to 85.

“Some horses get rest, some horses we rotate through, some horses get a little bit of a break now that we go to Florida in the winter,” he said “It's a little bit easier you don't have to push on them as hard in the summer because you have a little bit of an option for some of them. Even though Woodbine has really been my main bread and butter, the Florida thing has worked out to an extent. So we're trying to expand a little bit.

And back to that point about wanting to upgrade his stock, Drexler said, “I find Gulfstream is a good place to be seen. And we've won races there pretty much every year.”

He hasn’t decided how many horses he’ll take to Gulfstream this year.

“Last year, we got as many as, like, in the mid-50s down there. But that number for the winter, it's almost a little bit too much.”

Drexler provided updates on his top horses for Horse Racing Nation’s Barn Tour series.

Queens Command. This 6-year-old War Command mare returned after more than a year off with an optional-claiming allowance win after being sold and moved to Drexler’s barn. Then she was eighth in the Dance Smartly (G2) and second by a head in Saturday’s Maple Leaf. “Queen's Command is probably the most exciting thing I have in the barn right now. And not just because she ran so well this past weekend, but she's just been sent to me in a way that I wasn't quite sure what we were going to have. And as the year went on, she just seemed to get better and better and better. And now that she ran that big race on the synthetic, I think she's going to be a very, very useful horse who's going to be good on the turf.

“You can enter her in a turf race and if it ever comes off, she obviously is very good on the synthetic, now that she just ran a stakes race and beat some decent horses in there. It was a disappointment that we got beat because I really thought we had a good chance of winning that race with her. But she put in a big run, and she's fairly lightly used right now. So she's going to have a lot to look forward to with her. She's definitely just a classy, straightforward, good mare who has a lot going for her.”

Drexler was undecided on what’s next for Queen’s Command, but he hopes to take her to Gulfstream.

Runnin’ Rocket. This 4-year-old gelding by War Front is 2-for-5 this year, most recently winning an optional-claiming allowance on Oct. 19. “I love that horse. Him and Queens Command, those are my two highlights this year. Not that the other guys haven't done much, but those two horses just seem to be coming into their own and they just seem to be really, really flourishing right now, and there's just a big upside to that horse. … All these horses, they're all basically just claimers that we try and do something productive with, and some of them work out to be decent. … And that's the hard way to do it.

“We’ve got a couple options for him. There's a third-level (allowance). And then there's also the Kennedy Road (G2). And I honestly believe he's live in either one.”

Classic Mo Town. This 5-year-old Mo Town gelding won the Grade 2 Eclipse at Woodbine in May but is 0-for-4 since, all in graded stakes. Most recently, he was eighth in Saturday’s Autumn (G3).  “That's one horse that was one of our better claims. I've had him for two years. … We're probably going to just turn him out for a little while or if we don't, he might have to get dropped down a notch, down to some realistic level.

“We took him for $25,000 in the U.S. And he's done nothing but run well for us all the way through. And he's been sturdy, and he's been very consistent. … But we're probably going to get one more race into him here (at Woodbine). And then we have to decide if he's worth bringing to Florida or just maybe turn him out for like six weeks or something and maybe get a race into him down there before we come up north or whatever. And I think he's probably a horse that tries so hard for so many runs that he's just looking, he's probably looking for a little break right now.”

Cool Kiss. This 5-year-old Kantharos gelding got his first stakes win two back in the Durham Cup (G2), his only win in six starts this year, and he was sixth in the Autumn last out. “He's a horse that we took a little bit of time to figure out and got a little bit unlucky with a couple of the post-position draws earlier in the year. It took a while to get him the way I wanted him, as far as running style, and we even played around with how we trained him in the morning and that. He was a little bit difficult to get engaged. And then everything obviously kind of came together in that second-to-last start when he won the stake. I know he was a long shot in there, but he was great going in. The rail was playing well, he drew inside and (Sahin) Civaci gave him the absolute perfect trip.”

Drexler doesn’t expect to take Cool Kiss to Florida. “I think he's probably just going to run here in the Valedictory (G3, 1 1/2 miles). We're going to try going long with him. I think the distance is something that he wants.”

Hurricane Clair. A 4-year-old filly by Silent Name, her only win this year came in an optional-claiming allowance, and she finished second to Caitlinhergrtness in the Matron (G3). She was sixth on Saturday in the Maple Leaf (G3). “She was in a very good spot on paper. And she really just didn't fire for whatever reason. …

“She was kind of up against it this year a little bit because she made a lot of money last year as a 3-year-old. She's an Ontario-sired filly. She's Ontario-bred. She's got everything. And as a 3-year-old, there was a lot of opportunities for her. And she used up all her conditions. And then as a 4-year-old now, all her races have got to be wide open. There is one more Ontario-sired race for her that we're going aim for. I don't wanna say she's been a little bit of a disappointment because she's still going to end up making $100,000 on the year, but maybe she just isn't going make the transition towards the open company going into next year. She's going to have one more year of racing one way or another.”

Old Chestnut. An 8-year-old Speightstown gelding, he won the Jacques Cartier (G3) in May over two rivals after the favorite was scratched, and he’s 1-for-5 since. “He's just a good old boy. He's a barn pet. And he got a little bit lucky that he got to win the Jacque Cartier. The setup in that race was kind of crazy actually. … It was just one of those fields where we made the lead and ended up winning a stake.

“He’s 8 turning 9, but he's doing well and he's down, so I don't know if at that point if we just run him out and just find easier levels for him, or if you give him a break. I don't know. We're still kind of undecided what to do with him, but he's just a nice horse. Shows up every time.”

Artemus Citylimits. The 8-year-old Temple City gelding has a 7: 1-1-3 record this year, scoring in the black-type Vice Regent in August. Owner Dwight Baron “sent me that horse in Florida and basically hasn't really told me much as far as what he wanted with the horse. He just said, I want you to play around with this horse and see what you can do. But he said, and this is going back to, like, last January, and he said something along the lines of, all I can say is I would really like to win the Vice Regent with him. It’s a five-eighths turf race for Canadian-breds.” Going off at 19-1, “he wins it by a neck and probably with a bit of a fortunate trip. There was a horse that shipped up that got into a bunch of trouble. … Just like anything, you've got to have a little bit of luck.”

Breezero. A 4-year-old Bucchero filly, she has a 9: 3-1-1 record this year. “She's actually been a pleasant surprise, that one. We took her for 20 off of Saffie (Joseph Jr.) and really didn't know if there was anything there. … I guess she's going to end up being a much better turf horse than she is a synthetic horse. … But she's strictly five-eighths. I mean, she's five-eighths, and she doesn't want to go like five inches further, you know? She's just a hardcore five-eights horse who, you can sit there and she'll make her run, but 5 1/2, she probably flattens. …

“She's made some money, and now we can see where she fits in. She's definitely coming to Florida. There's going to be lots of races for her, distance-wise. She's got starter-allowance eligibility.”