When the dust settled from the 2022 Fort Erie Thoroughbred season and the statistics were tabulated, there was a new name near the top of the trainer’s list. Roy Agostino, in his first full year of training, racked up 19 wins to be second to Julie Mathes, who was winning her third straight title. Roy put a tidy bow on what was a super year by winning two races at Woodbine including one with a new claim, Hardware Gap, on the last day of that tough meeting.
“I’m excited to get going again,” said the Welland, Ontario resident. “People have been calling me a lot to take horses for them to train.” And while Roy, who is 48, is late on the scene as a Thoroughbred trainer, there is plenty of horsemanship and experience in his back pocket, having trained Standardbreds for some 10 years.
Roy comes by his love for horses and racing honestly as his father, Dominic, enjoyed owning and training a Standardbred or two and his uncle Joe was also a trainer. A millwright, Dominic often had Roy with him when he was at the barn.