Two-time Grade 2 winner Tower of Texas retires

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Local Woodbine favorite Tower of Texas, who was a multiple graded stakes winner and ran second to Tepin in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in 2016, has been retired, trainer Roger Attfield said.

Tower of Texas breezed four furlongs in 48.60 seconds on Woodbine’s Tapeta on Aug. 12, but Attfield said he wasn’t training up to his normal standard.

“I just thought he was a step over the line,” he said. “He didn’t owe me or the owners anything. He’s such a nice horse. He’s nice and sound still, and he’ll go on to another discipline in life. He can go on into the show world before something wears out on him. That’s what I wanted to do with him.”

A 7-year-old Street Sense gelding, Tower of Texas retires with a record of seven wins from 32 starts, including two graded stakes wins, in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup and Grade 2 King Edward Stakes. Bred in Ontario by Anderson Farms and Rod Ferguson, Tower of Texas was bought for $195,000 by Scott and Evan Dilworth as a short yearling out of the 2012 Keeneland January sale. He earned more than $1.1 million in his career, all for Thomas Van Meter II and Scott Dilworth.

“He was very good to us and overcame a lot of stuff,” Attfield said. “We owed him something, too.”