Jason Bartlett is off to a scorching start to his 2025 season. The perennial Yonkers kingpin, Bartlett has expanded his reach over the last couple of years, taking his talents on the road to Pocono and the Meadowlands. While Yonkers was dark for the first three weeks of the year, Bartlett kept busy in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and then when Pocono opened found his way to the five-eighths-mile track where last Saturday he captured seven of the track's 14 races before getting on the highway for an excursion to the Meadowlands. "It usually takes me about an hour and forty minutes," said Bartlett of the travel time by car. "This time it took a bit longer since there was a sinkhole on Route 80 that had traffic at a standstill." Bartlett relies on the Waze App to seek out the fastest route and despite the added time he remained glued to the prescribed route. While many other Grand Circuit drivers have taken the last few months to refuel for the coming stakes, Bartlett has been energized and off to one of the fastest starts of his career in the first two months of the year. Through Tuesday (February 25) Bartlett had captured 115 races from just 316 mounts and a phenomenal .486 UDRS. Bartlett has also been a regular at Yonkers where he continues to dominate on a nightly basis, and has pulled doubleheaders on Saturdays and Mondays with Pocono's afternoon programs allowing him the freedom and enough travel time to return east for the Meadowlands or Yonkers evening cards. "I started going to Pocono when Per (Engblom) asked me," said Bartlett of his original decision to add the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, track to his schedule. "He's got about 100 horses now and has to find places to race them and I've followed." It's been a win-win situation for the trainer-driver team as Engblom's growing stable has run at high efficiency, with Bartlett aggressively steering the horses into the winner's circle. While many of the sport's leading drivers have made doubleheaders a regularity in their schedules, Bartlett's game plan remains quite different. "I'm a homebody. I'm not going to travel to Kentucky," Bartlett said, clearly recognizing the dollar signs available with the rich programs in the Bluegrass. While other leading drivers have made that move, Bartlett knows it comes with certain risks and perhaps not enough rewards. "I've got kids I want to be around," said Bartlett, who is currently quite active on that front. "I'm coaching my son's travel basketball team." His 13-year-old son Carter is good enough right now to be starting on the high school junior varsity even though he's only in eighth grade. Bartlett makes the most of his free day (Sunday) to travel and coach and is happy to help his son develop. "He's learning how to play the game. It's not always about size and speed. He's a point guard and there are other ways to use your body to be effective," said Bartlett, who pointed to the recently-traded Luka Doncic as an example in today's NBA. Bartlett too has found a way to maximize his talent on the racetrack, and perhaps the biggest asset he has is an ability to judge the pace of a race so accurately that he gives his horses the best chance down the homestretch. Rival driver Scott Zeron competes against Bartlett and is amazed with his precision. "He'll leave out of there a hundred and you'll think you're getting to the half in 56 seconds, but he's slowed the second quarter down to 30 seconds and you're there in 58," Zeron said. That kind of edge is a major advantage on all sized tracks, and Bartlett has shown early in 2025 that he's as sharp as ever, and as difficult to beat. Bartlett gives the credit to the trainers who he's been fortunate to drive for. "(Ron) Burke called me and asked if I would drive for him at Pocono," Bartlett said of the sport's leading driver, who, like Engblom, has a full complement of horses racing in Pennsylvania. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Perhaps one fly in the ointment these days that Bartlett must accept is that the earlier starting time (6:45 p.m.) at Yonkers makes it a bit more challenging to stay at Pocono through the entire card on a Monday and arrive at Yonkers in time for the first race. "I didn't race at Pocono last Monday (February 24). I had to weigh whether it was worth it to make the trip and drive in just 10 at Pocono and I decided against it," said Bartlett, who obviously has seen Yonkers as his bread and butter for some time. Bartlett expects to follow the same path he took in 2024 this year while leaving open the door to whatever calls come his way. "Right now, I'm committed to driving throughout New York for the Sire Stakes," Bartlett said of the season that is still a few months away. "I am looking forward to driving Sir Pinocchio." The now-4-year-old son of Met's Hall afforded Bartlett the opportunity for more extensive travel last year, and he's hopeful the journey will be even better in 2025. "He showed so much improvement from his 2-year-old season to his 3-year-old season," said Bartlett. "If he improves as much this year, he's going to be one of the best 4-year-olds." Sir Pinocchio won 11 of his 17 starts last year for trainer Ed Hart with Bartlett not having to go that far to capture the Yonkers Trot or New York Sire Stakes finals, but he did travel to Ontario for the Canadian Trotting Classic where Sir Pinocchio captured an elimination race last September. As most any catch-driver in the sport, Bartlett likes to keep his options open, and while the phone hasn't yet begun to ring for the coming stakes season, 2024 should have planted the seeds with a large group of trainers that he is more than capable of winning the biggest races if just given the opportunity. "I'm not saying I won't travel," Bartlett said, recognizing the possibility of taking a New York-bred horse like Sir Pinocchio to Grand Circuit events. With $12.6 million banked by his drives in 2024, Bartlett had his most successful year financially. His 633 wins was the highest he'd achieved since 2009. While winning is the main objective, Bartlett had two drives in last year's Breeders Crown finals at the Meadowlands that were exemplary. He drove Tarrific, a filly he campaigned for trainer Chris Ryder on the New York Sire Stakes, to a second-place finish just a neck behind My Girl EJ in the $600,000 final for 3-year-old filly pacers. Bartlett had Tarrific on the lead early despite starting from post 10 and then worked out a pocket trip at odds of 31-1. He worked out a perfect trip for the 86-1 shot Seven Colors in the Open Pace for $600,000 and finished second behind Coach Stefanos. Whether Bartlett is a homebody or not remains to be seen, but given his start in 2025 I'd be willing to bet top trainers will be entrusting him to major talent for the Grand Circuit this year and perhaps draw him away from the Northeast occasionally.