Patrick Husbands retires after 3,700 wins at Woodbine Racetrack
Patrick Husbands quietly retired before the meet started at woodbine racetrack two weekends ago. The move ended a 30-plus-year run that produced more than 3,700 wins and US$184-million in prize money. It also pulled one of Canadian racing’s most decorated riders out of competition after a career shaped by injuries and hard miles.
Husbands Leaves Woodbine
Husbands will turn 53 in a few weeks, and he said repeated injuries helped drive the decision. He suffered a traumatic brain injury as a teenager in Barbados when three horses fell in front of him, then spent 5 1/2 weeks in a coma. He said he still has short-term memory losses from that crash.
The list of damage from the saddle is long: a broken collarbone, broken ribs on the right side of his body that punctured his kidney and lung, broken both hands and both thumbs, a leg snapped in half, a broken jaw, a crushed chest, knee surgery and a repaired sports hernia. A doctor warned him a few years ago that if he kept riding, he would end up in a wheelchair.
Barbados To Toronto
Husbands’ path to Woodbine started early. He learned to ride on a donkey named Daisy on his family’s farm in Barbados, and by 5 his father, Walter, was hoisting him into a saddle. He turned professional at 15, then came to Toronto in 1989 and followed his brother Anthony, who is a trainer at Woodbine.
His Toronto years brought the results that made the retirement notable. He won his first of seven Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding jockey in 1999. In 2023, he won the King’s Plate for the third time aboard Paramount Prince, trained by Mark Casse, and led all Woodbine riders in stakes wins that year.
Mark Casse And Paramount Prince
That last stretch also showed the level Husbands reached with Casse. The two became one of the most successful one-two combinations in Canadian racing history, and Paramount Prince gave him his third King’s Plate victory.
Now the numbers sit beside the goodbye. More than 3,700 races, US$184-million in prize money and seven Sovereign Awards are the record of a rider who built his career from Barbados to Toronto and left before the Woodbine meet opened two weekends ago.
