Charles Dickens started A Tale of Two Cities with the words “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” and those same words seem quite appropriate when telling the story of trainer Bill Rhoades. While in the midst of the best year in his career, he is also fighting a year-long suspension offered up by the Ohio State Racing Commission for an offense he says he didn’t commit. Rhoades is at heart a fan of harness racing but also in his own words one of the best trainers of “bad horses” in the sport. He’s been among the top 25 trainers in North America for wins each of the last five years and currently has about 50 under his care. Despite the ongoing litigation, Rhoades was willing to discuss that situation, his career, his personal issues, and much more. Enjoy!    How did you get started in harness racing? My step-dad Roy Brown. I was 4 years old, maybe and he was stabled at Ashland Fairgrounds. My aunt had riding horses there and she would babysit me. He had a big ole stinking Billy goat and I would ride him around. One day I brought my mom to the fairgrounds and I introduced them. They ended up getting married. Can you drop some names of people who helped you in your career? Roy Brown made me who I am. Clay Faurot and Craig Stein have both made me a better horse trainer all around. But my wife Leah has educated me so much. We catch the things that a lot of trainers would never even think to look for. She’s such an intelligent person. What makes her great as an all-around vet is if she doesn’t know something she says “I don’t know” and searches for an answer. She doesn’t make up an excuse or diagnosis, which I think the majority of vets do because of pride or maybe their bottom dollar. I have to say Brian Brown too, not that it’s been a lot, but he’s always given me advice when asked and if anyone you would want to be like it would have to be him. I’m not sure if there’s a more class act and more liked guy in harness racing. Though I’m not on his level, I strive to be as successful as a human being as him. You are an Ohio native that races in Ohio but you did take a shot at Yonkers a couple of years ago. Why did you abort? Multiple reasons. First, being away from my children and wife got to be unbearable. Second, I didn’t have the backing once I got there that I was supposed to. Third, the horses I took were not winning Yonkers horses. Fourth, I felt it was going to be difficult for me to make money and pay my bills had I stayed longer. You’ve been in the top 15 in training wins for the last handful of years but in 2023 you are sitting third. What changed? My percentages are pretty consistent, but I have doubled the amount of horses that I normally keep so that gives me the bigger number. Was doubling your stable size by design? Yeah. In November 2022 my doctor started me on a new med and it has me feeling like my old self. I’m back motivated, shoeing a lot and focused. People started calling and texting about taking horses this winter, which I usually decline. This year I said yes. My guess I’ll be around 25 through the summer. It’s tougher to race with the stakes going on. Do you ever see yourself branching out into more babies and fewer overnight horses? Probably not. I’m not very patient. Maybe as an owner in the near future. We have one baby currently in training with Jason Shaw. But who knows. I was happy with the year that I did babies, they all made it. Let’s discuss the elephant in the room, the Class 1 positive test by Sheswildnfree, who you trained on November 8, 2022 in a victory. First, are you innocent and did you appeal the one-year suspension? Yes I am innocent. I also declined their offer. By them going from one year to 60 days shows me they know that I didn’t do this. You mentioned the Ohio Racing Commission offering a 60-day reduced sentence if you didn’t appeal. Was that ever a viable option from your perspective just to get it over with? Never was it an option. I can’t admit guilt to something I’m not guilty of. By taking the 60 days would be saying I authorized my horse to receive methamphetamine. The appeal is also to challenge the OSRC rules in general. The purpose of the rules is to prevent intentional use of medication for performance enhancement so that the integrity of racing is maintained. What needs to be reviewed by the Commission is the fact that laboratory instruments are becoming more and more refined, detecting the smallest amounts of substances, down to trace amounts, that were previously not detectible. When the sophistication of the equipment increases, finding substances that otherwise went undetected but were probably present, the next obvious question is, is the amount of methamphetamine found performance enhancing? The OSRC will not provide us with the quantity, yet, which is imperative to our argument.  Some sources are claiming the positive was a result of tainted urine from a caretaker. Do you believe that to be true? We are trying to discover what was contaminated that the horse came into contact with that resulted in possibly being found in her sample. We are not ruling out that the contamination could have occurred after her race, either while the sample was being drawn or at the lab. The source and timing of the contamination is questionable, knowing I did not administer the drug or any other medication that has Methamphetamine as a component.  The transmissibility of methamphetamine from human consumption through contact with a horse is a factor that has to be considered. The increase of recreational drug usage in humans has become so prominent that the opportunities for contamination have increased exponentially, making virtually impossible to monitor a horse every second of the day. Contamination can occur in stalls in the test barns. Stalls that a trainer has no control over cleaning and sanitizing. Bedding, stall walls, and drinking water are examples of how horses can test positive for a medication through contamination.  The application of what is known as the “absolute insurer rule” seems to have given the OSRC the attitude that a trainer never has a defense to a medication positive when there is no threshold listed. It is the OSRC’s responsibility to periodically review its policies and medication levels to keep up with the ever-changing technology and environmental contaminates that directly influence the testing done, but not answering the ultimate question, which is, in the mere presence of a prohibited substance, performance enhancing, which is in the OSRC rules. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to the ongoing litigation in this matter, some of the above two questions were answered with the assistance of counsel.] Do you feel confident you will win your appeal? I don’t know. I just know I didn’t do it. I have a lot of good arguments and a lot of good people behind me. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter To be fair, you have several fines or warnings for Class 4 and 5 substances on your record over the last few years. How should those be viewed from your perspective? They were all approved therapeutic medications that are non-performance enhancing, each with their own set of circumstances. You hit 1,000 career wins as a trainer earlier this year. What does that number mean to you? It means a lot and I hope to get a few thousand more. From where I was to where I am now, it’s kind of a Cinderella story except I didn’t lose a shoe, I lost my career momentarily. I owe it all to my wife. You mention losing your career. Does that relate to the gap in your training career from 2013 to 2016? What were you doing then? I hit rock bottom. I was broke. I went through a divorce and lost all hope for a while. I did commercial and industrial roofing, then I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started shoeing horses on the side of my regular job. That’s when I met my wife Leah and she made me better than I could have ever dreamed of. She made me a better person and a better father. I went back to shoeing full-time and she helped me get my life back on track. You used to do some amateur racing. What are your thoughts on amateur racing in general and what it offers the sport? I think they’re good; people seem to bet them. I don’t know how because I could never in good conscience bet $2 on myself to win a race as a driver. But it gives people like me who don’t have the talent to be a catch driver a chance to shine for two minutes. Most of the people I know that drive in them do it because they really just love racing and it’s great they get the opportunity to do what they love to do. What is your favorite track to race at? Why? Northfield. We race here! It’s not a ‘line up and don’t pull’ track. It’s a very competitive place to race. There’s a lot of good trainers here who would do good anywhere they went with the right horses. So it keeps me on my toes with the competition. What is your favorite big event in racing? Why? The Battle of Lake Erie. As a kid I grew up racing $300 horses. So when all the top trainers would send their horse to race at Northfield in the ‘Battle’ I would buy the program as soon as it would come out and would watch these guys ship in three to five days out and would get excited knowing all these great animals were in my presence. I remember the feeling to this day. It was better than ever meeting a celebrity to me. So that’s been my Hambletonian since I was very young. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? Texas Hold-em; I’m not good. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don’t know? My wife and I do a lot of rescue, all sorts of animals. Any and all racehorses that I have had the privilege of training or owning that end up in bad situations, we purchase or buy from the kill pens. We [she] then rehab and find them forever homes. I think we saved around six last year. We probably have around 20-plus horses we have saved and keep an eye on. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Life. How many horses do you currently train and where are you stabled? I fluctuate weekly. I’m currently just under 50 and everything is stabled at the racetrack [Northfield] in Cleveland. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten or given about harness racing? It’s not a sin to buy a bad one, it’s a sin to keep one. What was your best moment in harness racing? I have a lot of good moments but the best feeling was just as a bystander. It was 1999. I was two-thirds of the way through the last turn at the fence at Delaware and Roger Huston yells three-quarters in 1:21, which was crazy at the time. Every hair on my neck and arms stood up. I remember Jet Laag just rolling to win in 1:49 and it hooked me to racing. I still get goose bumps. I was only 12 but that was my first sub [1:]50 mile that I witnessed in person. That was one of the coolest feelings I ever had. Which is the best horse you’ve ever trained? I was recently told you get the kind of horses you win with. I win with bad horses and rejects, so I get a lot of them sent to me. I’ve never had anyone give me really good ones. Currently I have some of the best quality horses of my career thanks to some new owners. But I hope to change this in the near future. My horses get the some of the best care in the business so I don’t see why I couldn’t maintain and compete in the big races one day. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? Commissions. There needs to be a universal set of rules and guidelines. Also accountability. How do you view the future of harness racing? Scary. Something needs to happen. A lot of people much smarter than I am still don’t have the answers. Social media only focuses on the bad, never the good, which is really hurting us. Being in the mix of things I see way more good than bad. But we only see the bad. Is it true that you own a zebra? Yes. I bought Ziggy when he was 3 months old. He’s almost 2 now. He is at a trainers currently, teaching him general handling and some tricks, like how to bow and stand on a bucket. I plan on breaking him to the cart. He’s coming back to me in six weeks. I want to lead a post parade with him at some point. I’ve taken him to The Meadows for a meet and greet. Time for the stretch drive. Best Horse you ever saw: Moni Maker/Bulldog Hanover. Best Driver Ever: Aaron Merriman. Lasix – Yes or No: Yes. Favorite TV Show: American Dad. Trotters or Pacers: Pacers.