One of the fastest races run at Woodbine in 2026 came courtesy of NAUVOO on Saturday July 4 when the dark bay six-year-old gelding won a claiming race at 1 1/8 miles, leading all the way in a 4 3/5 romp. The well-bred son of Not This Time ran this distance in a sharp 1:49.09, earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure from Daily Racing Form.
In the winner’s circle with David and Peter Milburn’s horse and jockey Ryan Munger was a jubilant EDGAR MENDOZA, winning his first race at Woodbine.
“It was exciting,” said Mendoza, the leading trainer at Hastings racecourse in Vancouver in 2022. “I didn’t know what to expect, but he really likes this track.”
Nauvoo was winning for the first time since the fall of 2024 at Santa Anita. The California-bred has changed owners and trainers eight times in his 41-race career, and this was his second start for Mendoza. Nauvoo, who showed a liking for all-weather surfaces early in his career, is one of nine horses that Mendoza has at Woodbine currently and he is keen to make the Rexdale track his racing home.
“It was always on my mind to come to Ontario,” said Mendoza, who was born in Mexico City and came to Canada as a teenager. “This is the place to be for racing in Canada.”
Growing up, Mendoza followed the path of most of his family members – he studied to be a lawyer. But he loved horses, and when he heard about a racetrack program that encouraged workers from Mexico to go to Vancouver, he took the chance.
That was some 20 years ago when Mendoza went from grooming to exercise riding to breaking babies with Chris and Tracy Loseth at Canmor Farm. In 2019. he got his own horse and set out as a trainer and in 2021, partnered with owner/breeder Christine Amman, forming a strong stable with many top owners. Mendoza won 38 races that season and a litany of stakes races. The champions he trained included Legacy Square and U Did It and he was named Trainer of the Year at the B.C. Industry Awards.
After another good season in 2023, Amman left racing to raise a family and the general vibe at Hastings was that racing’s future was unstable. Mendoza reluctantly left the track to become a safety officer in construction, a job he held for one year. “I started really missing the horses.”
When Hastings shut down last fall, Mendoza put together a plan to head east. He contacted David Milburn, head of the B.C. Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and also a lawyer, and brought a few horses for the Milburns to Woodbine in early March. Last weekend, Mendoza claimed a horse, stakes winner Cool Kiss, for his newest owner, Jarnal Billan, a recent Lotta 6/49 winner and horse lower.
“I will never stop learning,” said Mendoza. “I gallop my own horses, groom and do stalls – a little bit of everything.”
There are now nine horses in Mendoza’s stalls as he continues to build his business. “I want to stay here at Woodbine, work hard and fit in.”
So far, his plan is working.
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