Tomlinson Relishing Success Early in Training Career

Nick Tomlinson was one of the most frequent visitors to the Gulfstream Park winner's circle during his years serving as Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse's assistant. Nearly nine months since going out on his own, he certainly hasn't forgotten how to get there. The 32-year-old Toronto native is making a name for himself at Gulfstream Park, where he is saddling winners at a 33-percent rate during the current Royal Palm Meet. "The word I circle back to is 'grateful.' A lot of people are in my position that aren't getting the opportunities I'm getting. They're very good horsemen and horsewomen. I've just been very fortunate and very lucky," said Tomlinson, who more than held his own during the 2025-2026 Championship Meet while saddling six winners from 32 starters, good for a 19-percent strike rate. "All the credit goes to my staff, my owners, the horses,' he added. "We've been able to run the horses in the right spots. That's huge. The owners have been able to provide me with very good horses, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. I wasn't sure what was going to happen when I left Mark. It's gone well so far, and I hope it keeps going." It didn't take him long to find the winner's circle. Tomlinson, who set out on his own with a two-horse stable last fall, notched his first win as a head trainer Oct. 31 with Insolenta, who captured a $12,500 maiden claiming race by 10 1/4 lengths. Insolenta, who had finished second as Tomlinson's first starter three weeks earlier, was claimed out of her winning race, leaving Tomlinson with only one horse in his stable. "It was very bittersweet. The reality hit me pretty quick after the races. It was: 'OK, now I'm down to one horse," he said. "I was very fortunate to get a call from Dennis Amaty of Amaty Racing Stables. He really projected me to the next level to where I needed to be. We claimed horses and ran them in the right spots and won races together. Without him, I don't know where I am now." Tomlinson grew up near Woodbine, where his father worked and still works on the gate crew, and began spending time on the backstretch at the age of 13. "I was walking hots on weekends and summers during high school. When I graduated, I just never looked back," he said. "I think that's the nicest thing to look back on - starting from nothing and working my way up. It's very gratifying." He began working for trainer Peter Berringer at Woodbine, where he joined the stable of Malcolm and Sally Pierce, for whom he would become a traveling assistant before going on to join Casse's stable. "Malcolm and Sally really gave me the push that I needed to be where I am today," Tomlinson said. "Without them, maybe I'd still be up in Canada. I don't know what I'd be doing." In addition to working with world-class Thoroughbreds, Tomlinson learned to accept responsibility under Casse, which has obviously served him well thus far in his training career. "Mark left you to your own devices. You didn't have to call him and say, 'Hey, I want to jog this horse.' If you did it and had a very good reason for it, he was pretty much OK with it," he said. Tomlinson, who won his first stakes in the July 5 Proud Man with Arindel-homebred Watson, currently trains a stable of 20 at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's training facility in Palm Beach County. "As of right now, I'm small enough to where I don't have to have a set regimen, as some of the bigger guys do. I can cater to every horse's needs. It seems to be working," Tomlinson said. "I believe a happy horse will go out there and give you his best. That's what we try to have - we try to have happy horses."