Harness: From handicappers to drivers, we all have our favorites and nemeses

New York Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, "It's like déjà vu all over again." In harness racing, regardless of your participation level, from handicapper to driver, that is a feeling many of us can relate to on a daily basis.

The entire racing calendar is like a big circle. Stakes races and payments fall in the same places each year. Drivers spend their lives going around in circles, literally. Handicappers ride the rollercoaster of wins and losses.

Any regular gambler, regardless of their preferred method of entertainment, experiences daily success and failure. Hovering midway between strange and coincidental is the propensity for lightning to strike twice, or perhaps 250 times.

From the expert handicapper all the way down to the casual fan who visits the track a few times a year, everyone has a favorite driver or trainer. These are people who, at least in your mind, get the job done for you more often than not. These professionals are your "go-to" guys and you'll lean in their direction when torn between two horses.

Similarly, there are those horsemen and women which always seem to do you wrong when your money is down. Every time you get run down in the stretch, it is those same sets of driving colors blowing by your horse. Every time you leave this one trainer off your ticket, that's the week their horses are live.

Over my 30-plus years of wagering, the names have changed, but the bottom line remains the same. For many years it was John Campbell. Arguably the greatest driver in the history of the sport, I never seemed to pick Campbell's horses when they were live and he was typically the guy rolling past me in the lane when I played against him. Nowadays I'm seeing green and yellow way too often as Corey Callahan is my new on-track nemesis. Every time I need a horse for a big score, here comes Callahan beating me at the wire, and it is bittersweet because he's the nicest guy, so I can't even curse him out under my breath or scream in anger like a railbird would many years ago.

Switching to the more positive side of the driving end, Joseph Chindano, Jr has quickly become my "go-to" man at Pompano Park. With Wally Hennessey and David Miller taking the majority of the tote action on a daily basis, his horses seem to be live at good prices and I've been impressed with his willingness to put his horses in play at long odds. I'm also a fan of Yannick Gingras, mainly because I find him to be more predictable, not in his tactics but in his willingness to put live horses in play. Simon Allard also fits this mold. I want drivers who are going to err on the side of being over-aggressive when I wagering . . . unless they are driving a horse that simply doesn't respond to that type of handling.

Trainers are no different. With some barns it feels like a guessing game each night and others I feel very confident. For whatever reason I have trouble picking winners from the Andrew Harris barn and I can't pinpoint why. Mark Ford is another trainer that often has me scratching my head. On the other side of the spectrum, I seem to excel selecting horses from the Mark Silva and Nancy Takter stables.

Handicappers are not the only ones who can feel snake-bitten by certain drivers. Many of the top drivers in the sport have on-track nemeses of their own who seem to get to the best of them at the wire at the most inopportune time.

"I'd say Brian Sears," said two-time Driver of the Year Yannick Gingras. "Many times he's beaten me in a race when I was hoping he wouldn't."

"In my early years it was always Dave Magee. He just always seemed to be in the right spot without ever overusing his horse," said Tim Tetrick, a four-time Dan Patch winner as top driver. "In the present it's got to be Dave Miller. He is just a legend, plain and simple. He always finds a way to beat me."

"The driver that comes to mind is Yannick," said two-time Hambletonian winner Scott Zeron. "I wouldn't say he always beats me, but my most memorable campaigns/stretch battles seem to be against him; Marion Marauder/Southwind Frank; Kissin In The Sand/Youaremycandygirl; Atlanta/Manchego."

"Brian Sears for sure," said Jordan Stratton, leading driver at Yonkers Raceway in 2021. "His horses always seem to stick their noses out on the wire. He was always one of my favorites to watch growing up and still is one of the best when the big money is on the line."

"Brian Sears," said eight-time Dover Downs driving champion Corey Callahan. "When Bold Eagle came in for the Breeders Crown a couple of years ago they enlisted Brian to drive. The horse was wild scoring down before the race. He was pulling, lunging, rooting. Most guys would've been like screw this thing, but he just worked with him and when it came time for both of them to go behind the gate they were both utmost professionals, and of course he won."

While we've focused on drivers and trainers, it is truly the horse which deserves the most credit for victory. Surely every handicapper, driver and trainer has that one horse in their head which always seems to come through at the right time. For me it was City Hall. He would head off to The Downs at Pocono or Yonkers Raceway and always find his way back to the winner's circle at The Meadowlands no matter how poor his form was leading up to that race. I cashed many tickets on City Hall.

Similarly, drivers have their favorite horses which always seem to dig down deep for them when the money is on the line.

"Foiled Again, no doubt," said Gingras. "Never once did I feel like he didn't give me 150%. He didn't always win but he always tried his heart out."

"I have a soft spot for a lot of horses in my career, but I always remember Southwind Tempo and Buck I St Pat as they were just great horses that loved to get the job done no matter where I put them," said Tetrick.

"A horse that always gave me his all was Marion Marauder," said Zeron. "His desire to chase down the leaders and know exactly where the finish line was is an attribute that's extremely rare."

"Bit Of A Legend N will always be my favorite," said Stratton. "What he lacked in size, he made up for it with heart. He gave 100% effort every time he stepped on the track. Two starts that come to mind where he showed his tenacity were when he dead-heated with Wiggle It Jiggleit (April 16, 2016) in a leg of the Levy memorial and when he wore down All Bets Off at Northfield Park in the Battle of Lake Erie (June 2, 2018)."

"This is a hard one because I've driven so many nice horses, both big-time and cheap ones," said Callahan. "I'll go with one of my old buddy's horse Cool Flying Fun. He helped propel me when I first started driving. I won my sixth lifetime race with him in 1:50 4/5 the first time I got to drive him. That was a track record at the time."

Harness racing is so dynamic. Drivers, trainers and owners change. Track conditions change. Horses, of course, change. Handicapping bankrolls change. Memories of when things go right and wrong last forever.