What kind of car do you drive? Dodge 3500 Heavy Duty. Favorite dinner meal? Snack?     Fine steak. I used to have a lot of favorite snacks before I became diabetic a few years ago. When I cheat, it is usually fudge rounds. What is your favorite track to race at? Day-in and day-out I really enjoy Hoosier Park, but a few years ago I spent a month in New York and got to race a few at The Meadowlands. I really enjoyed that; just the scenery and a Midwest guy getting to go out there. That was fun. What is your favorite big event in racing? The Breeders Crown. When we had it here at Hoosier Park, everybody did a top-notch job. I also enjoyed Mohawk last year. And if you are from Ohio like I am, you can’t beat (Little Brown) Jug day, either. Everybody should experience that once. How often is racing on your mind? I feel like I'm a little blessed. I have the ability to shut the switch off. When I leave the track at night, I don’t think about racing. When I'm at home, I think about home and family. I probably think about racing 12 hours-a-day. Can you tell me who is in your family? My wife is Alicia, my daughter is Halle and my sons are Hunter and Parker. What is your favorite thing to do outside of racing? As the kids were growing up it was always family time. Now as the kids are growing older, I still enjoy that a lot, but it is not as often as it used to be. I really enjoy trail riding or riding my palomino. What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? College football, by far – THE Ohio State University. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don’t know? Racing is not totally my life. It is a big part of it. It is my job and something I enjoy doing, but it doesn't consume me. I really enjoy being away from the track, from the hustle and bustle, and spending time with family and friends. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Cerebral. How did you get started in the sport? I was kind of born into it. I guess I'm a fourth generation horseman, but nobody has really made a full-time job out of it as much as I have. In 2017, you doubled the most drives you've ever had in one season and have kept that pace since. What changed? I got a few better horses, and once you drive a few better ones, things just snowball from there. You are closing in on 1,000 career driving wins. Did that seem attainable a few years ago when you were driving only a few hundred horses a year? Not at all. I can say that family-wise it was always kind of a hobby or something I did extra. The way it turned out for me, I was able to make a career out of it. Early on, I thought if I ever got to 500 that would top anyone in my family and would be a good goal to set. A thousand is a really nice surprise. What other jobs have you done in the past? I've been a plumber, an HVAC tech and worked in a soybean refinery for years. I trained some horses on the side, more hobbyish (sic) and decided one day I like this. Things worked out and I made a career out of it. You also have right around 200 training wins. Are you a better trainer or driver? I would say trainer, but several years ago I cut back numbers and I don’t want to have a lot of horses anymore. I like to keep my numbers under eight, preferably between four and five. I just feel like there are too many mega-barns now and I believe that each horse deserves their own special attention. If I can't put my own hands on every horse every day then the owners are not getting what they paid for. What is it they call you? Big Ticket Bates? What do you think of the nickname? At the time it was pretty fitting. That was given to me by Jahnae Erpenbach at Hoosier Park. The track was capitalizing on its Fab-Five promotion and they added in some challengers of champions and that was about when I was starting to get more work. I had a good knack for bringing in $100 winners and many double-digit priced horses. The name kind of stuck. What does it take to bring home big-priced winners? Patience. Not over-driving a horse, but also putting them in position where they do have a chance if the race works out or falls apart a little bit. What is the best advice you've ever gotten about harness racing? Know your role. Basically it is self-explainable. Know what you have and what you are sitting behind. Read your program, watch replays and do your work every day. Don't take shortcuts and do everything you can to be right by the horse. What was your favorite moment in harness racing? Most of them. Lol. Winning the Breeders Crown elimination was right up there. Winning the Jate Lobell or dominating the Indiana Sire Stakes with Priceless last year. There were a few naysayers who thought maybe she wasn't as good as advertised. Those are sweet moments. Being a part of Swandre The Giant was just wonderful. He may have been the most perfect horse I was ever involved with. He was a complete professional. Was Swandre The Giant just not Grand Circuit caliber? I believe every step he was. Maybe he got out of what he liked as a training regime. Once we sold the horse, I was never contacted again, so I don't know what went wrong with him. Which is the best horse you’ve ever driven? Probably 'Swandre'. He was just flawless. You just knew you couldn't be beat with him. He was push-button and you could do whatever you wanted with him. Not knocking Priceless, but she has a quirk every once in a while. Which horse is/was your favorite? Probably one of the first decent horses I had. Her name was Lookslikemagictoo. I actually bought her out of the Ohio State ATI program at Wooster, Ohio. I trained her and drove her by myself and really learned a lot about a racehorse. You train and drive Indiana 2019 2-year-old champion pacing filly Priceless. How was she in her 2020 winning debut? Excellent; in-hand. She really matured over the winter and is not as excitable as in the past. She was really ready to go more. She has amazing high-end speed and her endurance is almost second-to-none. She doesn't get tired. The line doesn’t look like much on paper, but we were pacing into about a 30 mile-per-hour headwind in the stretch and she was doing it by herself. There is obviously plenty of money for her to earn at Hoosier Park. What is her first Grand Circuit stake? Her first major one will be the Mistletoe Shalee on July 18 at The Meadowlands. Then she should hit the Fan Hanover in August. She also has the Breeders Crown, Nadia Lobell, USS Indianapolis, International Stallion Stake at Lexington, and the Matron. She'll have a chance to travel a little. How confident are you in her going into the Mistletoe Shalee? I'm completely confident. She is right in the mix. Of course, there is different racing out there, but I have no concerns. She's a top-level filly and will go whatever you want her to go. Obviously the Breeders Crown last year she handled them in the elimination easily and in the final around the last turn, I was confident I was a winner, but she just sputtered late. After the race we scoped her and she was sick. The next day she didn't eat and was coughing. She only got beat three or four lengths and tried every step. How many circles do you have around the Breeders Crown on your calendar since it is at your home track Hoosier? It's highlighted. This year for her is not just Sire Stakes and that will change how we prep her, but that race is big. We'll be home in our own barn and stall. Hopefully things will shake out better. What's the one race that you haven't won but really want to win? Being from Ohio, you can guess, if you can stroll around Delaware (Little Brown Jug) twice and win, that would be great. Is Priceless eligible to the Jugette at Delaware? No. We tossed around supplementing her, but the fee was fairly high at like $40,000 and with the purse reduction over the last few years, it didn't make sense with the rest of her schedule. If you could choose any horse in history to drive, which horse would it be and why? Pine Chip. That horse was all power and speed. I was always enthralled with him. How did COVID-19 affected your life and business? More than I would've liked. I was driving at Hawthorne in Chicago. I went home one weekend and they didn’t race again until June. That was tough as far as extra income. Just shortly around that time, I had a few 2-year-olds that weren’t going to be up to expectations, so I quit with them and was down to just two horses. As far as an economic impact, it was fairly severe, especially with two kids in college. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? Accountability. That starts from the top all the way down. It drives me insane. It just seems like there is a hoax of integrity and zero accountability anymore. How do you view the future of harness racing? Doing this every day, I'd like to think it is better, but until the people who are supposed to be in charge do something drastically different, it is not a bright future at all. If you had one wish in life, what would you wish for? That my kids all succeed, do better than me and find their own happiness in life. Time for the stretch drive: Best Horse You Ever Saw: I don't know how you can beat Artsplace. Best Race you ever saw: The 1993 Little Brown Jug (Life Sign). Lasix – Yes or No?: Yes, absolutely. It is such a useful drug, especially in our industry, because Standardbreds must race more than once every month. It has been a talking point for every misinformed organization, but in reality, it is a must-have for Standardbreds. Favorite TV Show?: At the moment, I really enjoy Yellowstone. Trotters or Pacers?: Trotters, but I'm biased to any fast horse.