Harness: It's all about winning and improving for Joe Chindano Jr.

Joe Chindano Jr. enters each new season with one basic goal - to steadily improve his numbers from the previous year.

When looking at his stats at the completion of 2023, the 24-year-old driver had accomplished that goal for the sixth consecutive year. Chindano set career highs with 179 wins and $1.47 million in purses as a driver. The Middletown, N.Y., native also notched 43 victories and $384,679 as a trainer.

Chindano finished third in the driver standings at Buffalo, with 75 wins. Six-year-old mare Muskingum, driven and trained by Chindano, was named Trotter of the Meet. Another 6-year-old trotting mare driven and conditioned by Chindano, Deswanslittlelorie, set the all-age track record at Buffalo in mid-July. The 1:55 3/5 clocking was bettered several days later, but she remained the fastest older female trotter in the oval's history.

Three weeks after setting the Buffalo track record, Deswanslittlelorie became the fastest older female trotter at Batavia Downs, winning the Open Trot in 1:55 2/5. In the night's next race, Chindano and his trainee Villiam won the Open Pace.

"That was cool," Chindano said. "This was the first year that me and my wife (Maggie) kind of got to work together, and that was fun. It was a pretty good year for us. We took a whole barn to Buffalo and did pretty well up there. It was exciting."

In addition to racing at Buffalo and Batavia, Chindano won 70 races as a driver at Monticello. Among other highlights were winning four times at the Meadowlands and twice at Northfield Park as a member of Team Pompano in the Northfield/Pompano Drivers Challenge (ultimately won by Team Northfield).

"That was a fun experience to go over there," said Chindano, who spent three winters racing at Pompano Park, finishing fifth in the standings in 2020-21 and 2021-22. "It was quite the battle."

Chindano followed in family footsteps in getting involved in harness racing.

"My father was involved when he was a kid, and he got started in the horses again when I was pretty small," Chindano said. "I just took to it from there. Once it's in you, it's hard to get away from. Not that it's a bad lifestyle, but it's definitely a different lifestyle than a 9-to-5 job.

"I enjoy it. I like being my own boss. I've done the punching the timeclock thing and you just wait for the hours to go by. If you love what you do, you're never working a day, as they say. It's pretty cool that way."

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Chindano and his wife, who welcomed a baby girl to their family in August, had a stable of eight to 10 horses last year. They have 13 now.

"If it were up to my wife, we would have 20 or 30," Chindano said with a laugh. "I've always liked to have some of my own. When I was in Florida, I always looked up to the guys that had some of their own, got them ready themselves during the week.

"I guess you could say it's more rewarding. It's gone good so far."

Maggie recently got her trainer's license and will take over as the stable's listed trainer.

"She's taking over right now," Chindano said. "That will be pretty cool to see her name in the program."

Chindano will make his first Meadowlands appearance of the year on Friday. He will drive Glide In The Wind in a $9,000 conditioned trot. Chindano and the 9-year-old gelding will leave from post five in a field of 10 and are 8-1 on the morning line. Racing begins at 6:20 p.m. at the Big M.

"We kind of got reunited with him," said Chindano, who has previously driven Glide In The Wind, but not since December 2022. "Lee Clarke is a nice owner. The horse gets around the Meadowlands. He's a nice little trotter for the cheaper classes there."

Chindano will look to add to Glide In The Wind's victory total as he begins his own quest for another year of improvement.

"We just try to do a little better each year," Chindano said. "We never set any real goals, probably just to get some more wins. That's what we'd really like to see. Just get some more wins. It's all about winning."