There has been an explosion of young talent in harness racing, and Cam Capone, at just 26 years old, has certainly joined the conversation in 2025 with the emergence of his top 3-year-old pacer Madden Oaks. The trainer has seen his win totals and earnings climb every year since starting his own stable full-time in 2022 and has already eclipsed his previous year totals with half a season to go. Born in New Jersey, Capone comes from a harness racing family, with his dad Mark a regular on the East Coast for decades. Cam took time after his morning training to discuss his path into the sport, the upcoming Meadowlands Pace with morning-line favorite Madden Oaks, and much more. Enjoy! How did you get started in harness racing? My grandfather always had a couple of cheap claimers, then my dad took it to the next level by himself and his dad always helped him out. After I was born, I was on a jog cart when I was like 2 years old with my dad. I was always around horses and kind of knew I wanted to do it. I did go to college for a while, and I came back home and started working again with them. I claimed my first horse and it was all go from there. Was there ever a chance that you wouldn't pursue a path in harness racing? When I was going to college I kind of stopped watching it altogether. I think that made me enjoy it again. I was in the race bike at 10 years old. I was really into it as a young kid. I wanted to be a driver but I was a little too big for it. When I was a senior in high school I was really into football and I ended up going to play football at school for a year and it really just wasn't for me. So I transferred to West Chester in Pennsylvania. I came home for COVID and decided I would take a semester off because I was working with the horses during COVID. I had some of my own at that point and I never went back to school. The funny part is that I didn't think I was going to get back into the horses because college was a lot of fun, but I didn't know what career path I was going to take. I was going to school for business and a lot of my buddies had dads who worked on Wall Street or had their own businesses, so it was going to be an easy situation for me to get a job. So I never thought I'd get back into it, but when I came home the love for it came out again. What did your father Mark Capone teach you about being a trainer? Pretty much everything. He taught me how to keep a horse sound and to adjust your training methods to the horse. You can't have one method for every horse. Really, he's taught me basically everything. There have been a few other guys I can attribute a few things to, but for the most part my dad has been my role model my whole life and I just kind of listen to him. He always had a good stable but a lot of his guys were on Wall Street when 2007 happened and a few passed away due to cancer and one to old age. It was just bad luck for him and he lost all of his owners. When you lose that many owners it is hard to rebuild. He went from having like 35 horses to about eight in almost a year. He still did good, he had Native Doll ($442K) and A And Gs Princess ($285K), but he never really had a lot of horses again after that. Your father only has one training start in 2025. Has he completely stepped aside? When I got back in he was training and I was just the owner. I was just trying to learn. We were doing it together with one horse, then a couple of horses. A couple of years ago I got an owner and kind of went on my own. We were still working together but I was a little on my own. He helped me along the way, but that is when I went down as trainer. He moved to North Carolina. He was up in Canada with Madden Oaks for a while. He's been helping me out as much as he can because he knows how tough it is, especially now with 20 horses in the barn. We are racing every night basically. Since we've got this really nice colt now he doesn't want to leave [laughing]. He wants to enjoy the ride with me. Your stable already has reached career highs in wins (36) and earnings ($514,531) with half a year to go. How happy are you with those numbers? I've gotten a couple of new owners that are great; they are easy to get along with. I've got a great team with me right now and everything seems to be clicking. The horses are racing great, everything is going great and I have a really nice horse.  You've tried your luck in the bike as well. Do you enjoy driving and do you see yourself doing it in the future? I just play around with the amateurs. When I won with I'm Burlington a couple of times in 1:50 and 1:51, I was only about 185 to 190 pounds at the time, and I thought maybe this could be a thing and I should try it. I put him in an overnight with me at Chester, and you just realize that the guys who drive in this area, Meadowlands especially, they have such a talent to get along with horses. They make horses go as fast as possible and never even really have to urge them. That's when I realized that the pros make more speed than me. All I'd be doing by driving is costing myself money. But I like to play around in the amateurs. It is a cheaper spot and all the guys are good, no one is dangerous really. Every once in a while something crazy will happen but everyone is pretty safe. ► Get FREE PPs, watch analysis and learn about a 5% Rebate on Saturday's Meadowlands card Where are you stabled? Tioga Downs. What is your favorite track to race at and why? It's got to be the Meadowlands. I grew up there and my dad loved racing there. It was always his main track to race at. When there is a crowd there and the lights are on, it is really cool and exciting. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? I like to golf. You get away, turn the phone off. It is relaxing for me. Sitting on the couch watching TV is no good for me. I'd rather be out doing something. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? I'm a big football guy and lacrosse. Both of my parents are from Syracuse, so we watch all of the Syracuse sports, especially basketball and lacrosse. They are usually pretty dominant in those sports. The basketball has been slow the last few years, but I think they won the lacrosse national championship this year. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Thrill. Sometimes you are a little too worked up but most of the time when you put a horse on the track, especially when you have a good shot, it is just thrilling. There is no real feeling like that except when I ask people who have had a kid, that's the next closest thrill to having a kid. I guess that is why once people know about horses and get around racing they never get away. It just kind of catches you. Let's Talk Madden Oaks. Did his narrow defeat in the North America Cup surprise you? Was it more than you could've expected? We knew we had a good horse going into it, but it was one of those things where we had the ten-hole and hopefully it worked out. At the top of the lane, honestly, with the fractions Louprint put up, I thought we were going to win. He's just a tough horse. He just raced on Sunday at Tioga. Was it the perfect prep? He went a great race and that was all we wanted to go with him. He made it look super easy. He's as good as he's ever been and he's learning every start. He's only got nine lifetime starts. What do you think Madden Oaks' chances are now that there is no Louprint in the Meadowlands Pace? Going into it with the ten-hole it was a weird situation. We thought we could win the North America Cup from the ten-hole and we thought we could win the Pace from out there if we worked out a trip. He's a really nice horse and he likes to stalk for the most part. He's been getting put on the front in the last couple of starts, but he seems to give a bigger kick when you come from behind with him. [Driver] Braxten [Boyd] and I talk every day now. With Louprint in there we thought he was going to blast out and go a big opening-half, and we needed to work out a trip where we were about three lengths off at the top of the lane. This morning [July 7] someone called me like five times and I was like 'what the heck?' Then they texted me Louprint is scratched. I was like holy crap. I feel really for bad for Ronnie [Burke]. It's brutal that he had to have that surgery. That horse is a freak of nature. He's not a big horse. There really isn't a lot to him, but he's crazy-fast and has a lot of heart. Now with Louprint out, I think we are going to win this thing to be honest with you, especially moving inside a post. The nine-hole is a huge difference than the ten-hole. If you don't drive you don't see it. I've driven there in the amateur races and leaving from the 10 is almost impossible but from the nine, if you shoot right for the turn you can almost cross over. As to what we'll do, I leave that up to the driver, but we spoke about 10 minutes ago and feel that as long as everything goes good I think we are going to get it done. How great is it to have a horse like Madden Oaks in your barn at such a young age? As a young guy it is pretty cool that we bought one horse from the sale and he's turned out to be – with Louprint out right now – possibly the best 3-year-old colt in the country. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter At just 26 years old, how do you see your future in harness racing? I hope I look like Noel Daley or Brett Pelling or one of those guys. Hopefully it all works out. I just have to stay humble, work every day, show up every day, and do the right thing by my horses. I noticed you have a few infractions on your record for improper conduct. Is that just you being young? I'm just really passionate about the horses and sometimes I feel like you work so hard and you are at it 365 days a year, you never really get away, then you have guys doing crazy erratic things and you feel like you should pitch your opinion out there, but most of the time it is probably not the right thing to do. I feel like it comes with age. The more you go around the world the calmer you get. As a young guy, everyone has been there, sometimes you just lose your head. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? Probably finding a way to get people to come back to the track. If you ask a lot of the older people in the game, they tell you it is so much different. It used to be more exciting because everyone knew who you were when you went out to eat. It was a different time and I feel like if we could get that publicity of the sport back, that is what I would do. We need to get the fans back because that is what makes anything. As a young guy, how do we get people your age interested? A lot of my friends don't even know about it but I know if you gave them a $50 voucher to come to the track I could get them to show up. Once they are there once or twice and have a little fun, they'll be saying 'let's go to the track again.' Most of the time if they come to the track people will gamble or drink. You have to keep them entertained. I know they have commentators telling you who to bet in the races, but tracks should try to have someone there to direct people on what they are doing so they can actually learn. I know they've had a lot of food trucks and other events at the Meadowlands, but I think tracks have to get more creative to not only get the crowd there but help them understand the sport. What does a day in the life of Cam Capone look like? I wake up between 6:30 and 7:00, get to the barn around 7:30. I'm on the track until about 11:30, we are done around 2:00. Then I try to get a bite to eat and I'll come back later to feed the horses. I try to give my help the least amount of work as I can because we have a lot going on right now. This Saturday I'll be leaving too, and they have to pick up the slack. It is a pretty calm life, really. Some nights I'll leave the barn at 7:30 or 8:00 at night and when we are racing we don't get done until midnight. Time for the stretch drive... Best Horse you ever saw: Bulldog Hanover. He was just a freak. He never got tired. He's Watching is another one. He was just a tiny horse with not much to him, but he was real blocky and really wide. He could fly. Lasix – Yes or No: It is a great medication. If you take it away a lot of these older horses won't be able to race. Favorite TV Show: ESPN. Trotters or Pacers: I was always a pacing guy, but now one of the guys I deal with has basically all trotters. I actually get along with them good. I don't like them when they are making breaks but if they are set, they are really honest. They go within a second of their normal time for the most part every week; their class is their class. With pacers, when they are good they can be an Open horse and when they are bad they can be non-winners of $1,500. Still, I guess I have to stick with pacers.