Well-traveled Atras continues to find success on the NYRA circuit
Grade 1-winning trainer Rob Atras has come a long way – both in distance and in career milestones – from his roots in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Eight years after launching his career at Assiniboia Downs in his native province and with stints at racetracks across the continent, Atras moved east to New York in 2018 to begin a new chapter that has taken his career to a new level over the last decade.
“I was never a city guy – 10 years ago, I was saying ‘you need to get me out of here,’ and I’m still here,” Atras said, with a laugh. “We got some really nice horses with some really good clients. It took me a little while to adjust, and I’ve had horses in Kentucky and Oaklawn, but I always keep coming back here.”
Atras, 41, was exposed to racing at a young age. His mother owned racehorses, and he spent his youth watching the action at Assiniboia, where he would later get his feet wet with his first jobs in the sport, trying his hand at a multitude of skills from groom to patrol judge. From there, he became an assistant to family friend Jack Robertson and then the late Albert “Bert” Blake, while keeping a small string of his own.
In 2010, an opportunity arose for Atras to expand his string and make another step towards a full-fledged training career. That year, Atras put together 11 wins from 68 starts, and followed with a 12-for-77 season in 2011. With an Assiniboia meet that ran from May through October, Atras used the off-season at the track as a sabbatical of sorts to work for and learn from trainers across North America before settling into the typical cycle that many Assiniboia trainers do – shifting their winter operation to Turf Paradise in Phoenix.
“Bert was getting ready to retire, and I was his assistant with a few of my own, and then I had a couple clients ask me to take their horses,” Atras recalled. “Bert was supportive, and he said, ‘go for it – this is a good opportunity with good owners.’ I knew I would look after the horses and learn as much as I could.”
A path to the Empire State was forged after Atras began working as an assistant to conditioner Robertino Diodoro, who asked Atras to oversee his string at Oaklawn Park in 2014 before eventually moving east when Diodoro branched out to New York in 2017.
“I did really well in Winnipeg for a while, but I just wasn’t moving up, I was kind of chasing my tail around,” Atras said. “I had more horses for other people than I did my own, and Robertino called me at the end of the meet [in 2014] and asked me if I wanted to go to Oaklawn, and then he sent me here. I was his assistant for four years, and that really helped me.”
Atras made the move to New York in 2017 with a productive group of horses, but by 2019, Diodoro was ready to move his New York string back to Oaklawn. Atras was compelled to stay, and did so with six horses from clients that were looking to keep horses at Belmont.
Atras would win with 10 of his first 18 starters from January 15 – March 2, 2019, culminating with a win in Aqueduct Racetrack’s Bernardini with Royal Albert Hall.
“It was like a ready-made stable, and it helped me start off real quick, because they were all ready to run,” Atras said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a cheap horse, if you’re winning races, people take notice. It gave me a big boost.”
With 196 starts across the three NYRA tracks that year, Atras compiled a 37-44-30 record with more than $1.8 million in earnings in his first full year of training, a number he would only build upon each year until his career-high of north of $4.1 million in 2022.
Along the way, Atras enjoyed several career milestones in a 2021 season that included his first graded stakes wins [G3 Toboggan, American Power; G3 Tom Fool, Chateau], and a monumental upset score with Maracuja in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga Race Course, where the 14-1 longest shot in the four-horse field dueled furiously with the heavily favored and subsequent Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Malathaat to edge her by a head.
“She was a big, long filly, and you knew by looking at her that she wanted to go far,” Atras said. “It was a small field and I thought, ‘man, if we can run third in a Grade 1, that would be the greatest thing.’ Halfway through the race, I remember she dropped back a little bit, and I thought, ‘oh God, just finish the race at this point.’ Then all of a sudden she came on again, and I’m like, ‘oh great, we’ll run third!’ And then it looked like second… I just couldn’t believe it. She needed the whole stretch to get there, and I didn’t know if she won, but I was just excited. She got there, but it would have been a win to us even if she had run second. It totally blew my mind, and at Saratoga, the most exciting and toughest place to win a race.”
Success is not fleeting for Atras, whose runners have banked at least $2 million or more for seven consecutive years. The arrival of the chestnut colt Neat into his barn in 2023 spelled out more future prosperity, with the son of Constitution going on to collect three graded stakes victories topped by the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 2024 at the Spa. The millionaire won 7-of-22 starts for Atras, and exited the barn in September when he was claimed for $80,000 out of an optional claiming tilt at Kentucky Downs.
Atras expressed his gratitude for all Neat gave the team in his four-season tenure.
“He was a very cool horse,” Atras said. “He’s definitely a horse I’ll keep an eye on. Horses like him seem to show up and are very honest. You love those kinds of horses – they make you look good.”
Despite the departure of Neat, there is considerable talent within the pool of 34 horses currently under Atras’ tutelage. The lightly-raced John the Beer Man has made a rapid ascent through the turf sprinting ranks since transferring to Atras early this year. He won his first two efforts for the barn this spring at Fair Grounds Race Course and Aqueduct Racetrack, and just missed with a solid third-place finish in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Saratoga ahead of a breakout score in the Spa’s Grade 2 Troy in August.
John the Beer Man is expected to represent Atras in this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships in the Grade 1 Turf Sprint on October 31 at Keeneland for owners Michael Caruso and Michael Dubb.
Atras sent out Chasing Liberty to land a solid third in the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint on October 1 here for an ownership group that includes his wife, Brittney, who recently joined in with CMNWLTH, Marcinda Mitchell, Maddie Go Round Racing, Chief Big Blue Stable, Gary Grab and Daugherty Racing. The millionaire son of Constitution is a four-time stakes-winner, the leading money earner [$1,086,822] for Atras, and is a barn favorite for Brittney, who serves as the Individual Giving Manager for the Retired Racehorse Project.
“The owners were looking to make a change and offered him to us first,” Atras said. “Brittney jumped at it because she loves the horse, and as soon as the opportunity came, she had every owner on the phone to try and get something together. It’s a fun group.”
While the stakes horses naturally take the spotlight, Atras stressed the importance of the day-to-day horses that keep the barn going, and stressed that a quality horse is not necessarily an expensive one.
“We try to be more quality over quantity. I can take a $10,000 horse and if they’re winning or running second, trying hard, I still think that’s a quality horse,” Atras said. “I love horses that try hard – the grooms work hard, they’re always doing the maintenance, so when they’re training good, feeling good and running good, it doesn’t matter if it’s a claiming or allowance race; to me, that’s still quality.”
Atras has accomplished much in his eight years as a head trainer, and is hoping to continue his success anywhere he can find it, perhaps one day at Meydan Racecourse for one of their prestigious meetings that Atras grew up watching on TV.
“There’s of course the Derby and the Belmont Stakes, but I always thought it would be really neat to go there to Dubai, but I wouldn’t want to go with a 20-1 shot, I’d want a horse that I really thought would have the opportunity,” he said.
And back home in Manitoba, there is still one piece of unfinished business.
“Under my own name, I never did win the Manitoba Derby,” Atras said. “I did when I was working for Bert and Robertino, but I suppose that would be fun if the opportunity arose. Honestly, I just focus on the day-to-day and it’s great having nice horses. I really just love having horses in good form, and winning any race means the world to me.”
In the foreseeable future, Atras will keep his attention on his productive roster in New York, where he isn’t just surviving, but thriving in what is widely regarded as one of the most competitive racing circuits in the world.
“When you win in New York, it means something,” Atras said. “Even when you’re spotting your horses and going into the race good, it’s still tough to win. There’s so many good trainers here and good horses and you don’t get complacent here.
“Just being here has helped me by watching these big barns and seeing how everyone works,” he added. “You’re among elite company here, so you’ve got to step up.”
For a trainer whose career started out with nomadic roots, Atras said it is a welcome opportunity to remain at Belmont Park to race and train all year after the consolidation of racing to the Elmont oval following a three-year redevelopment project.
This week, NYRA announced that overnight purses at the Belmont winter meet have been increased by 23 percent with more than $26 million in overnight purse money on offer. The average overnight purse will see a per-race increase of nearly 10 percent. Specific purse levels for the Belmont Park winter meet are published at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/incentives/#overnightpurses.
“We had horses for the last few winters at Fair Grounds, but at the moment, we are going to stay here,” Atras said. “I loved going to every track and I’ll miss Aqueduct – it was probably my favorite – but change is inevitable and they did a great job with this track. It’s beautiful, especially the surfaces – I really like them. You get a little tired of traveling around, so it’s nice to be here.”
