The 2026 Woodbine Thoroughbred season is a week and a day away and horses and humans have been getting ready for the meeting since the beginning of March. The worktab began to fill up within the last two weeks and local horses will be testing their fitness against the number of runners coming in from parts south.
The biggest news of the off-season was that the track’s second leading trainer of 2025, Martin Drexler, will not be returning to training this year, leaving an opening for another conditioner or two to share in those victories.
The top jockeys from last season are back. Rafael Hernandez, who dominated the stakes wins locally last year, edged Pietro Moran for the title and the two, with Moran now a journeyman, will have competition from Ryan Munger, Fraser Aebly, and Jose Campos. among others. Pietro Moran, who dabbled in some rides at Turfway, Gulfstream and Keeneland in recent weeks, will return to Woodbine with a new agent, Steve Roberts, who has been booking mounts for Pietro’s father, David. New faces to Woodbine include PRAYVEN BADRIE, who was Assiniboia Downs’ leading rider with 53 wins in 2024. ROMERO MARAGH is also scheduled to join the jockey colony, as well as New York rider RUBEN SILVERA.
Silvera, the leading rider at Parx in 2021 and 2022 when he won 225 and 183 races, respectively, has been riding in New York recently and he has over 1,400 career wins. He has made a name for himself as being an ace turf-course rider.
“I think he is a great fit at Woodbine,” said Silvera’s agent Pram Seebah, who has guided Daisuke Fukumoto to a successful career in Ontario. “He has been thinking about it for a while and the competition is not as tough as it is in New York.”
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