A common lifestyle of harness horsemen is that of a nomad. Constantly putting the miles in and not just on the track, but on the road. Every track has a season and usually those seasons span over a few months at a time, meaning that horsemen must pick up and move to the next track for the next season, repeating this cycle annually. For Jacob Cutting, a lifelong horseman, being a nomad has built his harness racing career thus far, but no longer. The 24-year-old is a native of Alberta, Canada and son of horsepeople Darryl and Melinda. Under the guidance of his parents, Cutting spent a lot of time in the barn in his childhood, but he had yet to catch the bug to make it his career. “When I was younger, I was always more into sports. I was always around the barn, but it was maybe when I was 16 or 17 I got more serious with working with the horses,” Jacob Cutting said. At the end of 2018, Cutting began training with nine starts made between Flamboro Downs and Century Downs. In May 2019, he scored his first training win with Starface in a claiming race with David Kelly in the bike. It wasn’t until 2019 that Cutting jumped into the race bike for his first track appearance in a qualifier at Century Downs in Alberta. Throughout June and early July he made several starts in qualifiers and on July 10, 2019, Cutting made his first lifetime start in a fillies and mares conditioned claiming pace, a race he finished second in with his dad’s Casey N Grinegan. As the month went by, he picked up more drives at the Calgary, A.B. track before moving to The Track On 2 in Lacombe, A.B. where he secured his first driving win with Gregor Manning’s Cajun Beat on Aug. 17. From there, he split his time between Century Mile in Edmonton, A.B. and The Track On 2 before ultimately moving stateside in November to race at Cal Expo in Sacramento, California. When Cal Expo concluded its meet in March 2020, Cutting picked up a start in Wisconsin at Rice Lake in May before journeying to Running Aces in Minnesota for five months. He ventured further east for a start at Monticello before returning to Cal Expo to start the cycle again with a fresh meet. In 2021, he continued the process of traveling long distances, visiting Cal Expo until April, Running Aces through August and then to Rosecroft in October, splitting his time between that 5/8ths mile track in Maryland and Dover Downs in Delaware before ultimately ending at Freehold Raceway in New Jersey. It was a breakout year for the young reinsman, with 131 wins and $782,000 in purse earnings. Cutting’s 2022 gave even the road warrior salesperson a run for their money. He competed at Rosecroft, Freehold, Dover and The Meadowlands before transitioning to Tioga Downs’ summer meet full time at the start of May. Batavia and Monticello were also in the mix in what amounted to 611 racing miles for the year and thousands of road miles trekked. The pattern flowed the same for 2023 through April before Cutting moved back to Aces and then Cal Expo. Then in 2024, Cutting started at Cal Expo before leaving the track for good in April. After the Aces meet, he returned to the East Coast permanently. “Me and my parents were [racing] together when Kendra and I met in Minnesota and then we went to California and we were still racing with my parents. Then we decided to move to New Jersey, that was when Kendra and I decided to move out on our own,” said Cutting. When racing looked bleak in Cal Expo, before the decision came down that the facility would stop hosting harness racing after early May 2025, and when the doors closed permanently at Freehold Raceway, Cutting and his wife Kendra were looking for a landing spot for their stable. Thus, in 2025, his lines have charted a focus on an upstate New York track, Saratoga Casino Hotel. “I’ve been moving all over the place, but I think the future in California was kind of up in the air and we were getting tired of moving. [Saratoga] was another track that I hadn’t been to, but Brett Beckwith was the one helping me and thought it would be good if I came out and gave it a try,” he explained. “We really like it so far and that’s the plan is to stay here.” Saratoga’s harness racing meet runs 10.5 months of the year with only a short six weeks between the seasons, leaving a perfect off-time for the horses to have a break and horsemen as well. Suddenly, the nomadic lifestyle transitions into a fixed one with the exception of occasional travel for races elsewhere. Except for in the case of Cutting, the fixed and settled lifestyle has come true to term as he has not made starts besides at the Saratoga Springs half-mile oval since the meet started. “We’re tired of moving and we like it here. We like the area and the racing; it seems like a place kind of hard not to like here. That’s the plan is to stay long term,” said Cutting. In addition to the lengthy racing meet with 150 race days a year, Saratoga is a town focused on horses, given the historic nature of the illustrious Thoroughbred racecourse just steps away from the harness track. With acres of farmland, crosswalks dedicated to horses, four tracks, and over 100 barns between the two landmarks, Saratoga is the ideal place for any horse lover. Settled into their new home, Jacob and Kendra have six horses in Saratoga together and four still in Minnesota. Though he said there could be a plan for travel in the future, for now he is staying local to Saratoga. As a driver, he now has 555 wins and just over $4 million earned, and as a trainer he has 91 wins with $462,000 earned. His most memorable win comes from his triumph in the 2023 Dan Patch Free-For-All at Running Aces with Hezzz A Wise Sky. “Minnesota, the Dan Patch, I got the opportunity to drive Hezzz A Wise Sky for John Filomeno. That was probably one of the highlight driving moments for me for sure,” said Cutting. As far as advice for the next generation, Cutting says it all comes down to hard work. “Overall, you just have to put in the work and you can’t take any shortcuts. If you’re not going to put in the work, you’re not going to get anywhere. I think if you study anyone in this business that has success, you’ll see they work hard, whether it’s a catch driver or a horse trainer – they are working all day every day,” concluded Cutting. Donning his white, blue and orange colors, Jacob Cutting looks to chart a lot more miles on the half-mile oval in Saratoga Springs this year than on the roadway across the country, and so far he has charted himself into fifth on the driver leaderboard to date.