What kind of car do you drive? A bright and shiny red Jeep. Favorite dinner meal? Snack? Since I was born and raised in mid-coast Maine, it will likely surprise no one that my favorite meal is Maine lobster -- piping hot lobster with melted butter! When I was a kid growing up, my parents could buy them right at the wharf from lobstermen when they came back from hauling their traps. My mom's secret was to boil the lobsters in heavily salted water, more salt than people would typically expect. Nothing tastes better. For snacks, I really like caramel cream candies. What is your favorite track to visit? Why? My very first time at The Red Mile, I fell in love with that track. I love sitting in the section adjoining the track where you can feel so close to the horses. You can watch their muscles flex and hear, and almost feel, the thunder as they pass by on their way to the finish line. That is so exciting! Also, I think that The Red Mile is one of the most beautiful tracks in North America -- and appreciate that it is a mile track since the larger tracks seem fairer to the outside horses than the smaller tracks. What is your favorite big event in racing? Why? Whether watching as a fan or dreaming of winning, the Breeders Crown has always been my favorite. Just perusing the names of the past winners is mind-boggling -- names like Nihilator, Mack Lobell, Varenne, Muscle Hill, Peace Corps, Passionate Glide, Town Pro and My Little Dragon. I love the history and the inclusiveness of the race, all ages, trotters and pacers. Plus it now feels so incredible that our Tall Dark Stranger, Captain Crunch and Caviart Ally are on that elite list. That is a dream come true. How often are horses or racing on your mind? That would be a whole lot of the time every single day. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? There is nothing that I enjoy more than spending time with our family. Before the pandemic, every Sunday the local kids and grandkids came to our house to spend the afternoon and to have dinner. For alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, our entire family -- all seven of our kids and 16 grandkids -- always gathered at our house to celebrate. Unfortunately, since the pandemic we have only had outdoor family picnics, and the big holiday celebrations have not happened at all. I will be glad when life can get back to normal. Otherwise, I love walking on our farm, watching the horses in the fields and paddocks and photographing them. What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? There are two. Most kids growing up in Maine are almost automatically Red Sox fans -- and I was no exception. I still remember rushing home from school to watch the Red Sox play their greatest rival, the NY Yankees -- and to this day I am a Red Sox fan. I also like hockey -- the Washington Capitals. For my college internship, I did a media analysis for the Capitals that they shared with other teams in the league, this aimed at increasing the amount of media coverage and also creating a more positive image of the sport. It was through regular meetings with the Capitals that I became a fan. What is the one thing about you that most fans/bettors don't know? I doubt that many people know that before getting in the Standardbred industry, I was a reporter/photographer for a large daily newspaper, wrote for a national recreational boating magazine and worked for a U.S. Senator on Capitol Hill. What is the one word that describes harness racing for you? Electrifying. How did you get started in harness racing? After a couple of years of frequently attending races at Rosecroft and Freestate, Maryland tracks, Buck (husband) and I decided to go to the Harrisburg yearling sale "just to look." Of course, watching the yearlings sell only whetted our appetite for becoming owners, so when Buck turned to me and asked, "Which do you want, our money toward a house or to buy a horse?" -- I chose the horse! The rest is history. We have been owners ever since, and, yes, we did eventually get the house. What got you and your husband Buck into the breeding game as Caviart Farms? When our first filly, Good Tal (the same filly noted above), retired from racing, Buck and I wanted to keep her so decided to breed her. After that we continued to buy fillies to be broodmares, and then in 2007 we bought a 235-acre farm in Paris, Kentucky so that we could become even more involved in the sport. This year we are adding Caviart Ally, who is being bred to Captain Crunch, and I can hardly wait to see that baby! Why the name Caviart Farms? As a young mom staying home to raise our children, I enjoyed watching the daytime television show, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Host Robin Leach always ended each show with his famous line, "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams." Caviar Dreams struck me as a terrific name for a horse. However, when I suggested the name to Buck, he said that he actually liked the appearance of the word caviar better with the letter "t" added. Hence, Caviart! We did actually name a colt Caviart Dreams and when we bought our farm it was a given that it would be called Caviart Farms. The farm is located in Kentucky. Where do you and Buck live? Buck and I live in Vienna, Virginia -- a lovely small town that is a suburb of Washington, D.C., actually about 17 miles outside of the city. It is a perfect location for Buck's consulting business, and with that typical small-town kind of atmosphere, it was ideal for raising our large family. So Vienna has all along been our home, but we also love the farm and go there as often as we can. Fortunately our son Terry and his wife relocated to Kentucky to operate the farm, and Terry does an absolutely superb job as Farm Manager/COO. What are your duties in the operation of Caviart Farms? Buck, Terry, Laurie and I talk every single day and work together. However, my role is selecting stallions for our broodmares, booking mares to stallions and maintaining records of which mares are in foal and their breeding and due dates. I also keep tabs on horses in training and their stakes, study the yearling sale catalogs and then sit down with Buck and Terry to decide which of those yearlings on my list seem right for us -- that sort of thing. What keeps you involved in the sport as an owner and breeder? The horses and sport are so emotionally important to me that I cannot imagine being as happy without them. How many broodmares do you have on the farm? Currently the farm has 25 broodmares, and as a private farm where we train and race the majority of the foals born on the farm, this seems like about the right number. How many horses do you and Buck own by yourselves or in partnership with others? Right now we have 79 horses, the majority owned solely by Caviart Farms. However, in just the last handful of years we have entered into some partnerships and have found that we really enjoy that too. It was lucky that our first partnership was a real home run, Captain Crunch, and honestly we all had such a grand time with him that the old gang is back together again. Last fall we bought Crunch's half-brother -- by Huntsville and now named Crunchville. Just like with Captain Crunch, Nancy Takter is training, and our partners are 3 Brothers Stable, Rojan Stable and Christina Takter. What is the best advice you've ever gotten about harness racing? I think that this is probably pretty common advice, but I will never forget visiting Charlie Keller at Yankeeland Farms where he told us to relish the good times. He said to relish them because in this business there will always be a mix of good times and times that will simply tear your heart out. That seems pretty solid advice, and just like probably everyone else, we have experienced both. What was your best moment in harness racing? It is impossible to choose just one because several have felt like the best, but in very different ways. When Caviart Sierra and Caviart Sydney won stakes races, my mom, who has since passed away, went into the winner's circle with us -- and every time in my heart it felt like a "best" moment. Before every race she used to search the ground, looking for a lucky penny so that we would have good luck in our race, and when our horses won she was as excited as we were. Nothing can top that -- ever! However, another sentimental "best" moment came when Caviart Ally pulled ahead of the field, including Shartin N, to win the Breeders Crown. It was a race that I had wanted for her for so long. Which is the best horse you've ever owned? Tall Dark Stranger. As a yearling, I thought that Tall Dark Stranger was the most perfect horse that I had ever seen. On the racetrack, he accomplished what few others have. I believe that he is the only horse in history to win the Metro Pace and Breeders Crown at 2, and then the Meadowlands Pace and North America Cup at 3. I also believe that he and Somebeachsomewhere are the only two horses in the past 35 years to be named a Dan Patch 2-Year-Old Pacing Colt of the Year and then at 3 become Horse of the Year. He astounds me -- his speed, his strength and what I think is his unrivaled biggest heart in the sport for his fight to win. You breed horses to sell at auction but also race quite a few and have been partners in a number of top stallions lately. Does having an interest in stallions make it an easy decision on who to breed to? Absolutely it does. Both Tall Dark Stranger and Captain Crunch have incredible records, great conformation and tremendously strong pedigrees. They are the complete package of what we look for in a stallion, so it is a no-brainer to breed the majority of our pacing mares to them. Fortunately, too, one is a son of Bettor's Delight and the other a son of Captaintreacherous, so generally if a mare does not cross with one of them, she most often will cross nicely with the other. Are you at all surprised by your great run of success in recent years with Tall Dark Stranger, Captain Crunch, Caviart Ally and others? These last few years have wildly exceeded our expectations, even our hopes and dreams. I still think back to the early days when our big hope was for a horse good enough to race at The Meadowlands. Now we not only have had horses racing there, but we have actually stood with them in the track's winner's circle! That feels huge. How excited are you to once again watch Dan Patch winner Anoka Hanover and older pacer No Lou Zing compete in 2021? I am super eager to watch both. If Anoka comes back strong, she might race in the Hambletonian Oaks. How exciting that would be! At the same time, I have heard that No Lou Zing ("Louie") is training really well, looking terrific. So indeed I am feeling very excited. You narrowly lost Owner of the Year to Pinske Stables. Were you upset at all by the loss? Oh, my goodness, no, of course not. Buck and I were excited and deeply honored to be nominated. Plus it was such a great reflection on our team, a recognition of their hard work and success. We are very grateful to the sponsor of the awards, the U.S. Harness Writers Association, and especially to the voters and the Keystone and New York Chapters that nominated us. The Keystone Chapter submitted a really lovely nomination write-up. I do not know who wrote it, or whether it was a collaborative effort, but it was very flattering, very nice. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? That would be to eliminate trailers in races, especially in stakes races. Every effort should be made for races to be as fair as possible for all horses, to try to keep as much of a level playing field as possible. It is tough enough to draw an outside post, but once there are trailers in a race the horses in some post positions can almost be said to have lost the race at the draw. Also, trailers seem especially egregious in stakes races where owners have already paid for their horse to participate. When a lot of horses are entered, racing in divisions seems fairest. How do you view the future of harness racing? I wholeheartedly believe that the future is up to us. If we sit back and do nothing, how can we expect growth, a healthier and more vibrant industry? If, on the other hand, we will roll up shirtsleeves, share ideas and work to implement the best of those, I believe that the future can be bright. We have a compelling product -- some of the most talented and beautiful athletes in the world. The horses and sport captivated each of us -- think about that. I believe that it is incumbent on us to tighten our message and spread tentacles to reach those who could be equally captivated, and clearly invite them in. Just as a few quick thoughts . . . We have talented writers who produce story after story. Distribute those outside our industry. Larger publications may not be interested, but smaller ones might. For special events, give the media, state and local political leaders and the public a compelling reason to come -- give them a part in the event. If they are involved actively and have fun, they likely will spread the word about the fun that they had. Also, we have owners who run their own or work for successful businesses and large corporations. Why not create an advisory panel, a sort of mentoring relationship whereby they can take what they learned from their own business experiences and apply those lessons to our own industry? If we actually think and are about "action, action, action", it seems that the future can be very bright. How would you rate yourself as an owner? Are you laid back or more hands-on? Honestly, our trainers are all great. They do a terrific job. Most have had our horses for years, and in some cases for many years, so I am very comfortable to have them just going about doing their jobs. At the same time, I will say that they stay in touch with us so that if something needs to be discussed, it is discussed. I never feel very far removed from what is happening at the barns. Time for the stretch drive: Best horse you ever saw: Best trotter, Mack Lobell. Best pacer, Tall Dark Stranger Best driver: We have an enormously talented group of drivers right now so that I would not feel comfortable in trying to choose one. In looking at drivers in the recent past, I really liked Ron Pierce a whole lot. Best trainer: All of our trainers would qualify. I would not disagree with anyone who named any one of them. Lasix -- Yes or No? Yes, definitely. Favorite TV show: I like nearly all of the mystery shows along the lines of Father Brown, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Shetland, and Midsomer Murders. Trotters or pacers? Both, although we have well more pacers than trotters.