What kind of car do you drive? Jeep rag–top. Favorite dinner meal? Snack?     Good Italian meal; Bananas and almonds. What is your favorite track to race at? Now, the closest one (Hoosier Park) because I don't like driving anymore. I liked the old Meadowlands the best. That was by far my favorite. What is your favorite big event in racing? Any of the big stakes. I missed out on going to the North America Cup this year. Any time you go up to Toronto area for the big races like the Breeders Crown or NA Cup or the Hambletonian at The Meadowlands, it is always great. How often is racing on your mind? Seems like a lot because we have a lot of horses racing now, but I always try to shut it off for a few hours. What is your favorite thing to do outside of racing? Going out on the lake, biking, snow skiing; staying active with outdoor activities. What is your favorite sport to watch? Harness Racing. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? I don't really think much about myself, so I really don't know. I do think that some people who get to know me are surprised. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Change. The sport changes so much over the decades. If you don't change with it, you fall behind. How did you get started in the sport? I grew up in it. My dad was involved with horses long before I was born and I carried it on because I enjoyed it. Was there ever a chance you were going to do something else? Not in my mind. You have over 1,000 training wins but stopped in 2014 and your wife Melanie took over, why? She took over most of it. I was on the road and she was there, so she started to list herself as trainer. We are both involved pretty equally. You are one of a few drivers with over 10,000 wins. What does that number mean to you? It means I lost a lot. It is a huge accomplishment, but when you think about having lost 40,000 or 50,000 races, that is a big accomplishment also. That's a lot of traveling around the track. Is it harder to be a successful trainer or top driver? One goes with the other. Every top driver needs to be involved with a top trainer. For me being involved with both, I have to be hard on myself as a trainer. If the stats aren’t going good on the training end, it definitely isn't going good on the driving end. What is the best advice you've ever gotten about harness racing? Be humble and respect your success, because it can change in one day. What was your favorite moment in harness racing? My first Breeders Crown win in Toronto with Yankee Cashmere (1994). That was my old stomping grounds and I still had my father on my mind. He used to like racing up that way. Is your family originally from Canada? I'm not but my parents were. Which is the best horse you've ever driven? It is hard to compare one horse to another. My most memorable week-in and week-out that I enjoyed a lot was Hi Ho Silverheels. We were involved personally and he was just a fun horse to put in the trailer and go race. Which horse is/was your favorite? Main Street. He was a cheap purchase as a yearling when I was younger and helped me win a lot of races that I dreamed of as a kid. He was a cool horse. What’s the one race that you haven't won but really want to win? There are plenty of them. The Little Brown Jug. I won the Juggette but never the Jug. Also the Hambletonian. How many horses do you and Melanie have in the barn? Somewhere between 32 and 34. Is Guinevere Hall a Grand Circuit horse? She's a world champion. She wouldn’t be ashamed by the Grand Circuit horses and she'll have her chance against them. She could line up with any of them, maybe not beat them, but she deserves to be in the race. What does Guineverie Hall have next? After this week she has the Breeders Championship (Delaware County Fair), then the Crossroads at Hoosier. She also has the Matron. How happy were you with Odds On Osiris finishing fourth in the North America Cup? Afterwards I was very happy. Going in I thought he could've been a little better. He just got away in a lot of traffic starting from the second-tier. I thought he raced tremendous considering he gave Tall Dark Stranger a 15-length head start at the quarter. What is next on his schedule? He came back good. He has some good races here at Hoosier, so he won't have to travel much. If you could choose any horse in history to drive, which horse would it be and why? Somebeachsomewhere. He was awfully impressive to watch. His speed was ahead of its time and his gait was like no other. It would've been a cool ride sitting behind a sports car like him. How did you get involved with Dana Parham of Odds On Racing? I was in Ohio and he was looking to get involved in that state. He is a very good client. Not only is he good, he's easy to get along with. Like everyone else, he’s looking for good horses and has put a lot of money into it, but it is hard to come up with good horses no matter how much you spend. We've had a little luck and I think we have a good relationship. How did COVID-19 affect your life and business? I didn't think much of it at first, but the longer we were in it the worse it became. I had horses in the north and Florida. I was in Florida and felt like we were on an island and couldn't go anywhere. It changed our training program after a while because we didn't know when we would return to racing. As ready as we thought we were, I think we fell behind or got horses bored, because it took a while for everything to get into shape. Mentally not knowing when racing was going to start was the hardest thing. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? I think our sport could go a long way if the right buttons are pushed. I think we need to look at the big picture. It's an exciting sport, we just need to figure out a way to make the pools bigger. A commissioner could help. Whether it is to look at bad race calls or whatever. If everything could go through a commission like in football, that would be good. A person betting multiple tracks doesn't know what they are going to get from track to track, whether it is when a horse breaks or a recall or whatever. How do you view the future of harness racing? I think it can go as deep as it needs to. We have a lot of horse owners and breeders that love this game. They have invested a lot of money into the future, whether it be broodmares, yearlings or stallions. We have a good product. The breeders are doing their job and hopefully one day the whole industry will follow. Time for the stretch drive: Best Horse You Ever Saw: Niatross. As a kid, maybe I was 19 at Windsor, they had him roped off and if you knew someone you could go visit him. I got to know the night caretaker and I'd take friends over to see him. Best Race you ever saw: Most of the time it is a the Jug. It is always exciting. Maybe the race where Art Official beat Somebeachsomewhere in the Meadowlands Pace. Lasix – Yes or No?: Yes. It's therapeutic. It is definitely better than having horses hemorrhage from stress. Favorite TV Show?: I don't watch much TV. Trotters or Pacers?: Trotters are a little more challenging, or at least they used to be. A good attitude is everything whether it is a trotter or a pacer.