Fast as Flight wins the Modesty Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day for former ASD leading trainer Martin Drexler.
by G. S. Thompson
Former Assiniboia Downs leading trainer Martin Drexler has come a long way from his days carrying water buckets and mucking stalls in 1989. The Slovakia-born horseman saddled his 900th career winner on January 16 at Gulfstream Park when Palace View rallied from just off the pace under Javier Castellano to win a $20,000 claiming race at 12-to-1.
We caught up with him at his home in Florida, and here’s what he had to say.
“We’ve got the usual 25-30 horses down here and just claiming away,” said Drexler. “When you win races down here, you get noticed, because everybody is watching this meeting.”
The 55-year-old has finished second in the Woodbine trainer standings three consecutive years (2023-2025) with 86-82-81 wins respectively, trailing only Mark Casse. His 2025 season also turned heads when he won six stakes with six different horses, including five former claimers.
“Only Kevin Attard and Casse won more stakes,” Drexler said. “For a claiming barn, we did it with six different horses and five of those horses we claimed. Not many people can do that because most of the guys that are winning stakes are winning it with horses that they have.”
Three were claimed for $25,000, one for $32,000, hard-knocking horses that worked their way up the ladder through patient training. It’s the kind of horsemanship that traces back to those early Assiniboia Downs days.
Drexler’s racing introduction came through his father Jaroslav, a family doctor who spent some time working as the track physician for jockeys at Assiniboia Downs. Young Martin, who moved to Winnipeg from Slovakia in 1983 when he was 12, started hanging around with his dad. “I just loved it,” he told The Game magazine in 2006.
“I just got to know a lot of people, I enjoyed the races, and I started following the races,” he told Horse Racing Nation in 2023. By 17 he was working in the mutuels department, while also networking with trainers. Soon he was working for trainer Bill Beamer. From filling water buckets to cleaning stalls, “I did whatever was needed to be done,” Drexler told The Game. “It was the most tiring year of my life, but I liked it.”
His father dismissed it as a phase. “My dad said, ‘You wait until a horse bites you, you’ll be out of there,'” said Drexler. But he was already certain: “I wanted to train horses. At the time it was just a dream, like some boys say they want to play in the NHL. Everybody laughed at me.”
The laughing stopped after he learned under Cam Ziprick and Brian Palaniuk and took out his trainers license in 2002. He won his first race with Magic Strike on August 10, 2002, and began a slow but sure climb in the standings to win the Downs training title in 2007 with 43 wins. After finishing third in the standings in 2008, Drexler moved to Woodbine for the 2009 season and won 16 races, proving that he belonged.
Former ASD leading trainer Martin Drexler at Gulfstream Park. (Ryan Thompson)
The claiming game has been his foundation, but lately Drexler has been getting better stock. “My quality of horses is going up and up,” he said. “I’ve got some horses for C2 Racing Stable in the barn now, those are the guys that own White Abarrio.”
Training quality horses is actually easier, he’s discovered. “Training a good horse is easier than training an ordinary horse,” he said. “Those horses can take the training. If you truly have a good horse and you have them ready, they rarely run a bad race. A good horse will do anything.”
Drexler has won numerous graded stakes at Woodbine, but his big US breakthrough came on May 3, 2024, when he won the Modesty Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day with 18-to-1 shot Fast As Flight.
“We bought the filly for $100,000 about a month before,” said Drexler. “Jose Ortiz gave her this incredible trip, just covered her up, and it was a really well-timed ride and she got up by a length. Everybody was there. That was a pretty incredible feeling.”
And that’s the level that opens doors. “You start winning these races and put yourself out there in graded stakes in the U.S., that’s when you really start creating the buzz needed for getting those good horses,” said Drexler, who continues to turn heads at Gulfstream Park in January.
Along with his 900th winner Palace View ($27.00) he has also won with Jim’s Hope ($30.60) and Westside Tide ($39.60). Those three winners improved Drexler’s lifetime record to 900-747-630 from 4,506 starts for purse earnings of $25,065,523. And he was quick to distribute the credit.
“I have great grooms, and I have great riders,” said Drexler, who can now send out horses in sets of five. “These people have been with me for years. I have two assistants that have been with me for over 10 years now. As we got bigger we got more and better help. People that you can really rely on, that have your back no matter what, and they understand what needs to be done. You get to train horses differently once you establish yourself a little bit.”
Or a lot.
Well done Mr. Drexler!