What kind of car do you drive? 2020 Ford Ranger. Favorite dinner meal? Snack? Filet Mignon; I'm not much of a snacker. What is your favorite track to race at? Why? Yonkers. It just seems like I've done well there. I like the style of racing there and like racing on a half-mile track. It's funny because I grew up at Balmoral Park, which is a mile track. I was always on a mile track unless I went over to Maywood.  What is your favorite big event in racing? The Hambletonian. There are so many good races on that card. Even if you miss a few races because you are still busy working in the morning, you can turn it on later and there is a good race on. I guess you can say the same for the Breeders Crown also. How often is racing on your mind? It is my life -- 24/7. What is your favorite thing to do outside of racing? Golfing or playing video games with friends. What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? Outside of harness racing, basketball. I'm from Chicago and have been a Bulls fan my whole life. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? I shoe a lot of my own horses. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Action. How did you get started in the sport?  My dad was a first-generation trainer. I just got into it from being around him. The older I got the more I loved it. How did you end up on the East Coast? I was working for Mike Arnold in Chicago and the racing was getting cheap and not going in the right direction. He said to me that if I wanted to be in it for the long term, because it looked like racing might shut down all together out there, I needed to go east. His wife Jill was the outrider at The Red Mile and she had taken care of some horses for the Takters. They got ahold of Nancy [Takter] and she needed some help. A week later I was on my way out there.  Was there ever a chance that you wouldn't be involved in harness racing? I wanted to be an architect for a long time, all the way up until high school. I always liked math and designing homes. But once you get the harness racing bug it sticks with you forever.  You run a stable with your wife Katie. How many horses do you have? Six. You used to train as well as drive but now Katie has taken over that aspect. Is she a better trainer than you? Probably. She does an amazing job. I work with Noel Daley in the morning. I might jog or train one before I go to work with Noel if she needs an opinion, but she does all the rest. She does a great job and all of the horses look amazing. I can't say enough good things about her. She has transitioned over from working for Ron Burke and Bruce Saunders as we've gotten more horses.  Speaking of Katie, how did you two meet? She's from Canada and I'm from Illinois. Before Noel went back to Australia I was working for him up in Canada. He usually sends his horses to Michael Vanderkemp who used to work with him. Katie was working for Mike at the time. We talked off and on and the rest is history. Is it hard to balance the stable with your wife and working for Noel? The only tough part is finding time. We don't have much down time, especially now as we start to get into the busy season. Luckily I have Katie and she does a ton to make it easier. If I was trying to do it on my own, I don't think it would be possible with this many horses.  What has Daley meant to your career? He's meant a lot. I like the style of training he has and have modeled most of my own after him. I think he gets a lot out of his horses without having to work them too hard. You learn a lot from Noel. Obviously he's had a lot of great horses. He's taught me that there is more than one way to train a horse. If something isn't working you can try things a completely different way.  You recently won three races on one card at Harrah's Philadelphia. How cool was that for you? It was very cool. I hadn't had a triple at Chester before. Even better was that two were for Noel. Usually I go to Freehold on Friday to race my wife's horses, but since we only had one at Freehold, I decided to go to Chester that day. We ended up racing two at Freehold and one of them got a win. Then we had some at the Meadowlands at got some checks, so it was a pretty good day. With 19 wins already in 2021 you are on pace to easily eclipse your career-best yearly total. Have you improved as a driver or are you just getting better horses? I think it is a little bit of both. The more you can drive and the more you do drive, the more you learn. Plus when you can drive the same horses often you learn them and have a better chance to succeed. You also learn about the other horses in the race from going against them, and that helps too. Are you a better trainer or driver? I'd like to think I'm good at both, though I'm not saying I'm great at either. I'd like to think I can help horses training by trying different things and training different ways.  What is the best advice you've gotten about harness racing? If you think you know everything about harness racing you should quit. You can never stop learning. What was your favorite moment in harness racing? Probably winning my first stakes race with 2-year-old trotting filly Setntheworldonfire [8/13/2017] at Tioga a few years back. It was pretty special and it was nice to do it for Noel. Which is the best horse you've ever driven? I've driven quite a few. Probably Anoka Hanover. I drove her to her first pari-mutuel win at Chester. It was her second or third start. She's a very nice filly with lots of power. She's classy and very nice to drive. Which horse is/was your favorite that you've driven? I drove Top Flight Angel for Andy and Julie [Miller] a few times. I really liked him a lot. He was such a classy horse. You could do whatever you wanted with him. I've also had some $4,000 claimers in Illinois that were my favorites. One was Come N Bet It. I love that horse. He was probably one of the first my dad and I claimed together. He was the type of horse that really took care of a young guy. At Balmoral he could just smoke home a quarter in 26 or 27 every week. You would just sit in with him until the head of the stretch and he would do the work for you. What's the one race that you most want to win in your career? The Breeders Crown or Hambletonian, but both are very hard to do. If I had to choose I'd go with the Hambo. If you could choose any horse in history to train or drive, which horse would it be and why? Nuncio. He was a great horse in both the U.S. and Europe. He looked like a fun horse and classy horse. It would be pretty special to have a horse like him. If you weren't involved in harness racing, what would you be doing? No idea. I probably would've gotten my college degree and maybe become an architect.  If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? It would be with social media. I'm not great at it but I think it could be a huge help to expose more young people to the sport. I think that is where a lot of trainers and the business itself are running into a lot of problems. It is hard now to find help and there isn't a lot of young blood in the sport. We need to find ways to get more young people interested. As a young person in the sport (26 years old), do you have any tips on how harness racing can reach the younger generation? The Harness Horse Youth Foundation is a good idea. Doing more things like that at the track would be great. We need to get people more hands-on at the track. At Balmoral they used to put an older racehorse in the grandstand so people could get close to it and pet it. I think The Meadowlands does a good job with the interviews after the races with drivers. Getting reaction of what happens after races is good for the sport.  How do you view the future of harness racing? If they make some changes and get more young people in it, I think it could be really good. A lot also depends on legislation. Stuff like decoupling could really hurt the sport. What are your long-term aspirations in the sport? I'd like to be a full-time catch-driver and follow the Grand Circuit while having some horses on the side. I'm sure my wife isn't opposed to having a big barn one day, either.  Time for the stretch drive: Best Horse You Ever Saw: Always B Miki -- He was just a freak, not just when he went 1:46 but earlier. Even looking at his Meadowlands Pace, he went an unbelievable mile that night.  Best Race you ever saw: Wiggle It Jiggleit in the Little Brown Jug. Lasix -- Yes or No?: Yes. I know a lot of places it isn't so big but there really is no reason to ban it. It really helps a lot of horses. Some end up racing until they are 14 and would have no chance of doing that without Lasix. It prevents harm to horses. Favorite TV Show?: Letterkenny on Hulu. Trotters or Pacers?: Trotters. There is nothing better than a good trotter.