By Katie Merritt
Trainer Edwin Cornier is a young, up-and-coming trainer and this meet is his first at Canterbury Park. Over the winter he trained at Portland Meadows in Oregon and Emerald Downs in Washington before deciding to move his operation to Minnesota for the summer.
Since he started training last October, his percentages have been impressive. He has started 11 horses; five won, two finished second and two finished third. When it comes to deciding where to run his horses, Cornier leaves it up to them. “I ride them myself and take care of them myself, so I can really get a feel for how they’re doing and where to run them. But my horses decide for me, really. They tell me what class they are.” Cornier is clearly a good listener.
Though he is somewhat new to the training game Edwin is no stranger to the horse racing industry. “My mom was a groom at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York. She used to bring me to the track on weekends and summers to help her,” he remembered with a smile. “I knew I was going to be a lifer.” After graduating high school, Cornier went to Florida to learn how to gallop and to embark on the path that would eventually lead him here to Canterbury.
In between Florida and Canterbury, Cornier has worked at tracks all over the country for different trainers, most recently serving for seven years as assistant trainer for prominent California trainer John Shirreffs. “He was really influential. He taught me so much, especially patience. A lot of patience, especially with the nervous fillies.” Cornier worked for Shirreffs in California as well as in New York where he ran the trainer’s east-coast string for several summers.
Now, as a trainer himself, Cornier has many aspirations, but for him the most important thing is to be honest and to be known for being a good care-taker of the animals. “That’s my main priority,” he said, adding, “I do want to win big races but I think all that will come by just taking it day by day and taking good care of my horses.”
