At 29 with only a couple of official years in the sulky under his belt, Mark Herschberger isn’t your typical driving prodigy. While he grew up in a racing family, with connections to top horsemen like Erv and Andy Miller, his journey to becoming a driver was slow to take hold but seems to be on the fast track. Herschberger who won a solid 8% of his races last year in his first full season in the bike, has bumped that percentage up to 12 this year while already eclipsing his win total from 2023. He’s also won a couple of races at The Meadowlands. The Illinois native, who has travelled to Pennsylvania and Indiana during his time in the sport, now seems settled in New Jersey and ready to make a name for himself. Sit back, relax and enjoy his story. How did you get started in harness racing? I’ve grown up with horses my whole life. My grandpa [Marvin E. Miller] bred race horses and that’s kind of where the itch got set in. I went over to help him break babies and help with the breeding season. Then I got away from it for quite a few years until I was 19 or 20 years old. Erv [Miller] had an opening come up and it just worked out. I was kind of in a bad way in my hometown and it was a good out for me to get away from the people I knew and the bad friends. I moved to Pennsylvania and lived and worked with him for a few years. Eventually you left Pennsylvania to go back west, why? I actually have a son who will be 10 in July. I wasn’t seeing him enough living in PA with him living in Illinois. So I gave it up and went back to Illinois for a 9 to 5 construction job. I did that for about a year and a half. But before I moved from PA back to Illinois I met my fiancée now, which is Brittany Jessop, and she decided to move to Indiana to be a groom at Hoosier Park. We stayed in contact and I ended up going to her barn a few times to help out and I just got back into it [harness racing]. I’ve been back in it for four years now. If you moved back to Illinois to be with your son, why did you come east to New Jersey? There was a big court custody battle and I fought for him tooth and nail, but you know how it is being a dad going into a court custody case; it’s tough. She ended up getting custody and she moved to Florida with her fiancée, husband now, and that is when Brittany and I thought that there was really no difference in flying him up to Indiana or New Jersey from Florida. My fiancée’s step-mom has breast cancer – Laurie Molnar – and that is what kind of brought us back out here to New Jersey, to come help. Paul Jessop and Laurie Molnar own Crystal Brook Training Center. It is a 40-acre training center and they also have some horses, so that is what brought us back, to help them. You worked with your uncle Erv Miller for a while before starting to drive. What took so long? I put it in Erv’s ear that I wanted to be a driver and he always said ‘you have some talent, let’s get you some more experience. We’ll get you schooled with some horses.’ That was out in Indiana. Then he gave me an ultimatum that I needed to move to PA for him to be able to put me on horses at the smaller tracks, which I totally understood. I ended up staying on with Joe Putnam and he is the one who actually gave me the chance. He gave me like three qualifiers and then he let me drive his horses on the Indiana Fair circuit. August 2022 was my very first Fair drive. The following year I drove all the 2-year-olds at the Fairs and catch-drove for quite a few other trainers. Then October 1, 2023 I got my first pari-mutuel win at Hoosier. You won 27 races in 307 starts in your first season (2023) in the bike. This year you already have 32 wins in 267 starts. That’s a quick and huge jump, no? I guess I don’t really see a jump because I’m a lot more comfortable out there than I was in 2023. This year, at least every weekend I drive two days if not three, I guess it is a jump to have more wins in fewer starts than last year, but I think I’m sitting behind better horses too. You recently won four races on a card at Freehold Raceway and have looked good winning at The Meadowlands. Which accomplishment means more to you? Every win is awesome to me. It is a blessing to get there first because it is hard, you need racing luck and everything to go your way. Racing and winning at The Meadowlands, there is no feeling like it. Just looking back at where you were two years ago, can you believe you’ve won races at The Meadowlands? God no. I was just telling my fiancée this the other day, ‘can you believe two years ago I was getting my first fair start and now I’ve got a couple of wins at The Meadowlands.’ It is very cool and very humbling. When I watch you in the bike I see someone who looks more like a pro than a novice. Are you simply a natural? I grew up around horses my whole life. I was in a jog cart with my grandfather when I was five, six, seven years old, so I guess it is in my blood; we have quite a few family members in it [Erv Miller, Andy Miller, Julie Miller, Marcus Miller, Tyler Miller, Hannah Miller]. I guess I just picked up on it really quick. When you are out there, do you feel like you can drive with guys like Dexter Dunn or do you think you still have plenty to learn? I absolutely still have plenty to learn. Those are some big guys to drive with at The Meadowlands. Friday [May 17] I got to go out on the track with a lot of the big boys. I wouldn’t say I’m intimidated by it, because I think I do have a skill set that gets me around there and I do a good job with them, but it is a thrill to be out there with them. What is your favorite track to race at? Why? I had a couple of starts at The Red Mile and I absolutely loved it. It is like racing on a big pillow. You don’t really hear much hoof beats around you. That was a great experience. There is a big difference between Freehold and The Meadowlands because it is half-mile and a mile, but I think The Meadowlands, definitely, would be my favorite. There is a bigger crowd at The Meadowlands and you just feel like you are ‘under the lights’. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? Obviously hang out with my kid. We go trail riding on horseback, we ride four-wheelers. I just got my fiancée started with golf, so we’ve been doing that since it warmed up. We have three dogs here and that is always fun. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don’t know? I was actually Amish for the first six years of my life, riding around in a buggy and wearing suspenders, and all that other stuff. Erv was Amish at one time too, right? Yeah, him and Andy [Miller] were both Amish until about 15 or 16. You’ve probably heard the term Rumspringa. It is a term Amish use for when you are 16 being able to go out and get a haircut, wear jeans, drive a car and see if you like that lifestyle. Some of them come back and some don’t. Andy and Erv obviously enjoyed the harness racing. The Amish are good people. I love them. They are a very tight-knit group. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Dream. It is a dream come true for me. It isn’t work. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten about harness racing? Don’t get too high with the highs or low with the lows. As a relative newbie to the bike, what are your goals for the future? Just keep progressing and climbing the ladder. Put good starts and drives on horses and do the best I can. Freehold shuts down here shortly and wherever trainers need or want me to go, I’ll be open to it. Do you feel like you’ve picked up some accounts where you can be their go-to guy? For sure. I’ve definitely earned some stars at Freehold. There are definitely more trainers using me than in the past. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter If you could only win one Grand Circuit race, which would you choose and why? Probably the Hambletonian because that is a big race. It would be an honor to win it. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? I’d like to see drivers get paid per drive. The warm-up guys get paid $10 to $15 per horse but us drivers go out there and risk our ass and if we don’t get a check we don’t make any money. There are warm-up guys that will do 15 horses a day and walk away with $150 while if we finish sixth we walk away with nothing. Hoosier Park does a great job with it. They pay $25 per drive whether you finish in the money or not. If all you do is catch-drive, you kind of need some kind of compensation for sitting behind them and risking your neck. When I was in Indiana I had a pretty good gig and that is what kind of led to me building relationships with people. I would warm up for certain accounts and made decent money doing that. They’d race five nights a week and I’d warm up nine to 10 horses a night; $100 on top of my day job. How do you view the future of harness racing? More and more you see fewer people in the grandstand because you can do everything from home, you can bet and watch from home. I think it is going the wrong way. We need to get more people involved and get them more excited about it. What does a day in the life of Mark Herschberger look like? I get up around 5 or 5:30 most mornings, put up a pot of coffee, let the dogs out, wake up the fiancée, get dressed and go to work. I ride for Andrew Harris right now and do some other things, like the other day I tacked six shoes on for him. Then I come home and most days I’ll help my fiancée finish up. We have a couple of broodmares and racehorses that she takes care of at Crystal Brook.  Then I’ll go play a round of golf or take the dogs to the beach, cook a nice dinner and relax. You mentioned having a couple of racehorses. Are you or Brittany training? Not yet. She is doing all the work on them for Laurie and her dad Paul Jessop. Would you like to have your own barn one day? That is what we are pointing towards; nothing crazy, just something to keep her busy and give me some horses to drive each week. Eight to 12 horses would be perfect. Time for the stretch drive. Best Horse you ever saw:  Bulldog Hanover. Lasix – Yes or No: Yes. Favorite TV Show: NCIS. Trotters or Pacers:  I enjoy driving trotters and I kind of feel I have a knack for them but it really doesn’t matter to me. As long as they aren’t super-grabby I enjoy driving them.