When Ashley Tetrick was called into action as an outrider at Balmoral Park in 2005 she knew nothing about harness racing. Now more than 15 years later she is married to a Hall of Fame driver and participates in the sport as an owner, breeder, publicist and so much more. A native of Illinois and graduate of Purdue University, Tetrick is a staunch believer in horse aftercare and recently joined the USTA Board of Directors where she serves as co-chair of the marketing committee. Her vision of creating a line of apparel for "Tetrick Racing" has also taken off and recently NBA MVP Nikola Jokic wore a Tetrick hat and shirt on national TV.  We sat down with the multi-faceted Tetrick to discuss marketing, her life in harness racing and much more. Enjoy! How did your path in harness racing begin? I grew up with riding horses in Crete, Illinois, which was the home of Balmoral Park. When I was about 18 years old they needed an outrider at Balmoral Park and Tony Morgan's wife Penny was a good friend of mine. I had rode rodeo horses with her and she called and said, 'get to the track now, we need an outrider.' That's where it started. I had never looked at a Standardbred or touched one before that day. Among other things, you're known as the wife of Hall of Fame driver Tim Tetrick. How did the two of you meet? I was outriding at the track. So we met there and were friends for a couple of years and started dating about 2006.  From the time I first started seeing you at Grand Circuit races some 15 years ago you've always been so friendly and inviting. Is there a nasty side to Ashley? No. I don't like inefficiency. If someone says they are going to do something I plan that they are going to do it. If they don't I'm very persistent, but there certainly isn't a nasty side. I'm pretty laid back. For many years Tim had a reputation for being a "bad" loser in that he didn't take the losses well. As the person who sees him every night, has that changed? No. He doesn't bring work home. He's harder on himself than he is on those around him and sometimes people take that wrong. If he's frustrated they think it is at them or the horse, but 99% of the time he is frustrated with himself. He holds himself to the highest standard and he's really an incredible horseman. What is the biggest pitfall of being married to a harness driver? You don't see them very often. He misses the milestones, like our daughter walking or talking or first barrel race or first accident at the farm if she falls off.  What kind of car do you drive? Chevy 3500 Dually. Favorite dinner meal? Snack? Anything I don't have to cook; Banana. What is your favorite track to visit? Why? Red Mile. There is nothing else in the world like it. I especially love when the grandstand is close because I love being close to the horses . . . when the paddock was right next to the grandstand, I loved that. Every track should have their people close to the horses What is your favorite big event in racing? Why? I love the Breeders Crown. It is the epitome of everything. You got to watch the horses grind all year. The upsets are sometimes incredible, and those that prevail the entire year and win their Breeders Crown, that's hard to do.  How often are horses or racing on your mind? Constantly. Not much time goes past where we aren't focused on horses in our own little stable, broodmares, babies or riding horses. I have seven or eight horses in the backyard always. What is your favorite thing to do outside of hanging out at the track? Barrel Racing. So going to or entering a rodeo.  What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? Right now basketball. I love March Madness but it has also been really fun watching the Denver Nuggets play with the connection to Nikola Jokic. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? Probably that I'm just as horse-obsessed as my husband. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Incredible. What was your best moment in harness racing? When Crimson And Chrome, who we bred, won at The Meadowlands. Just having a horse that you bred win a race at The Meadowlands is just amazing. Timmy winning the Hambletonian is a close second, but for me watching that little horse win was pretty awesome. I'm sure [Tim] will not appreciate that at all [laughing]. Crimson And Chrome is a really nice horse to be around, my daughter loves him. He is a family horse.  ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter How many horses to you and Tim own and how many do you breed each year? We only have two broodmares and we own parts of seven to nine racehorses.  Do you enjoy breeding? I love it but it is hard. It is not for the faint of heart. Your daughter Trysta seems to enjoy her time at the track. Do you see her being involved in the industry? Would you encourage it? I absolutely would encourage it. I think that being a horseman it doesn't matter what you do in life. When you are a horseman first you can do just about anything. I would encourage her but I have no idea what she will do. She is very methodical and a thinker. Timmy and I are more emotional. Who knows the path she will be on? You were doing a podcast called BossMares for a while. Why did you stop? We've been trying so desperately to get back together but our schedules are just so crazy, between Winnie [Morgan Nemeth], Emma [Petterson] and myself. We are still on hold and waiting for us to be able to get together again.  You are on the USTA Board of Directors and co-chair of the marketing committee. Do you feel your presence can and/or is bringing change? Absolutely. It is very difficult to be one of the youngest on that very vast Board of incredible people, but I'm so thrilled and fortunate that I feel respected among my peers and I think they are excited to hear what I have to say. We've got some things in the works right now that I think are very exciting for our sport and I'm thankful to Mike Tanner and President Russell Williams for taking my opinion into consideration.  If you could get one thing done as co-chair, what would it be? Probably launching Harnessracing.com, the url the USTA acquired, to be the premier location for all things harness racing.  There was some talk at the Board of Directors meeting as to what harnessracing.com would be vs. ustrotting.com. Can you speak about that? I don't think people recognize is how incredible ustrotting.com really is and how many niche markets it serves, and serves them really well. One of the things I feel it lacks is that it is built to be useful for the trade of harness racing, but it is too vast to be used for consumer marketing. A lot of the things within ustrotting.com that are suitable for the consumer, we can just pull out and allow it to stand alone at harnessracing.com and really draw the line in the sand by separating our trade media and consumer media so we can serve our new and green followers better.  On April 3 NBA MVP was on ABC's broadcast wearing a Tetrick Racing hat and shirt. How huge is that for the sport? It is so good for harness racing as a whole, not just because he put that on but because he respects and loves harness racing so fervently. We had given him some stuff when he came to jog horses a couple of times, but it was a genuine choice on his part. He did it on his own.  Can you see Jokic being an ambassador of sorts to boost Harness Racing's popularity? Yes, but I think we need to be very cognizant and careful with people like Nikola and Charles Oliveria because we don't want to make them feel we are exploiting them to grow our own sport. I think that if everyone recognizes that "genuine" factor, that is what will grow the sport. It is the grassroots factor of why those guys like harness racing, not the limelight reason.  In addition to Jokic, many celebrities have been seen wearing Siegelman Racing apparel. Can we make racing more mainstream? 100%. I don't know how they do it but I think it is terrific and needs to be appreciated. Maybe our drivers and trainers need to turn an ear to that. There is a market here that is valued and we should all invest in ourselves and brand ourselves. I hope that is what people notice and do.  You manage TetrickRacingGear.com which sells merchandise to the general public. Has that been a profitable venture?  It is insane. We've sold to over 19 countries, but with the pandemic /distribution problems that the country has been facing, I can't keep things in stock as fast as they sell. It is time-consuming, yes. It is a lot of work, yes. But it is so positive for the sport as a whole. Maybe some young marketing person will step up and take it on for all the drivers and trainers. I'll be glad to hand it over. It blows me away every time someone sends me a letter and says their son or dad or brother or grandfather got it for Christmas and they wear it every day; that a little boy wouldn't let them wash his shirt or a grandfather wouldn't take off his hat. This sport is so much more appreciated than a lot of us give it credit for. One thing I noticed is that your prices for shirts, hats, etc. are very reasonable. Was that important? Very important. I wanted everything to be attainable. We make very little from the sales. We just utilize the profits to reinvest in the idea and let it grow. Our margins are very slim. Tim also competed versus UFC Champion Charles Oliveira in a match race. What was that experience like for you and Tim? We loved it and it was so wonderful. Charlie loves horses as much as we love horses, which was so humbling and we so appreciated it. The fact that we had to get that done in just five days, and if it wasn't for Tom Grossman at Blue Chip Farms, that would've never happened. I could never say thanks enough to Tom because he was really the driving force. Irv and Vic, they went above and beyond to get Charlie some colors. The USTA helped so much and their coverage was great. It was just proof that we can do great things if we put our heads together. ► Celebrate the 10th anniversary of DRF Harness with FREE Harness Eye PPs If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? I would educate. What Vince Lombardi is to football I would love to be to harness racing. I think we have to teach people how to watch harness racing and teach them how well our horses are cared for and appreciated. These horses do great things even when they are off the track and retired. We have a very bad stigma/perception and we need to be as transparent as we can to show people how awesome these horses are, because clearly telling them isn't working.  You mention off the track. Aftercare is very important for you, no? 100%. My strength is that I was a riding person before I was ever involved with racehorses. They are two very parallel universes. Although they are the same, their paths just run alongside each other. Sometimes bridging that gap is just difficult -- for the horses to understand and the owners to understand. So we need to make it easy for people to recognize that maybe not racing that guy or gal those last two starts and sending them to an organization like New Vocations and letting them have a great future is the best way to go. If everyone took one extra step to do that it would be great. This ride that New Vocations has had over the last 30 years, they assist so many horses and are so well respected because they always do the right thing. They have really good horsemen that are closing that gap and educating the horses for that transition.  How do you view the future of harness racing? It is going to be rough for a little while, with everything going on with HIPA and the Thoroughbred cloud hurts us sometimes. We just have to focus on educating what Standardbreds are like and keep doing what we need to on a grand scale. If we do, we'll get through it. Time for the stretch drive.  Best Horse you ever saw: Shartin N. Lasix -- Yes or No?: Yes. Favorite TV Show?: The Cowboy Channel. It is an app on your phone that you can stream to any television. That would be the perfect place to house racing. We should have a contract with them for big races like the Breeders Crown and Hambletonian. It could be interesting rather than going the national route of CBS Sports. You get access to the exact demographic that is watching it and you can promote and reach out to them.  Trotters or Pacers?: Pacers.