The harness racing journey is different for every person. For Nicholas Boyd, he has dabbled in both training and driving, with over 300 races won as a driver and 135 as trainer, but finds his bliss working with younger horses. The 37-year-old Canadian native competes at Kawartha Downs, Woodbine Mohawk Park and other tracks across the region.  Nicholas took the time to discuss his path in the sport, what Harness Racing can do to improve and of course his outspoken 89-year-old grandmother. How did you get started in harness racing? My grandparents were hobbyists. I grew up directly beside them because my parents built a house on the other end of the farm track. My grandparents worked off the farm but they always had a broodmare, a couple of young horses and a couple of racehorses while I grew up. One thing led to another. You get it into your blood and you never shake it. You started as a trainer in 2002 as an 18-year-old and got your first drive a couple of years later. Was Harness Racing always in your plans? The plan was always for Harness Racing to be a hobby, maybe have one or two horses or own a part of a horse, maybe just drive the horse I owned. I never thought it would be my full-time job.  Has it always been your full-time job? Yes. Instead of getting a part-time job while I was attending university, I managed to have one or two horses of my own and picked up a couple of horses training for other people. I had a horse for Dean Towers -- @Pullthepocket on Twitter -- and John Cairg, who owned Luck Be Withyou. So I usually had four or five horses in training while going to university. That started the ball rolling on what ending up becoming a full-time profession.  Was it difficult to go winless (0 for 48) in the bike from 2004 to 2006? Yeah. Both of my uncles drove and they won their first starts, so it was certainly difficult. But I wasn't driving regularly. I didn't have these grandeur illusions to be a catch-driver of any sort. I wasn't working for any trainers or hanging around the track. I had a lot of other things going on like teenagers do, attending university and playing high-level junior hockey, but I certainly don't look back and think that was an ideal start. Do you remember your first win? Absolutely. It was on the same day I had my first lifetime drive, it was just a few years later. It was at my hometown track (Kawartha Downs). It was a very muddy night and I was driving a $4,000 claimer that I trained myself owned by @Pullthepocket. I put him on the front end and out-staggered them home. Who most helped you start your career? I had a fluctuating stable of between five and 20-something but I would only drive the ones that had a bad post or maybe hadn't been racing great. John Stergiou's driver didn't show up one day at Kawartha and I let him know that they were calling him to the race office to look for a driver. He said, 'Nicky boy, if you warm this horse up, you can drive him if you want.' John was a larger-than-life figure, such a great guy who was willing to give younger people a chance. I warmed the horse up and won with him that day. John put me back down and we went on a run winning like five of seven races. Then I started to get a few catch-drives at Kawartha. That was the start of my getting catch-drives on a more regular basis. It just snowballed. Unfortunately John passed away this past Thursday (March 24). He was only 57 years old and he lost a long battle with cancer. It is so sad. He was such a great guy.  ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter What kind of car do you drive? Chevy Silverado 2500HD. My family worked at GM so we get the discount.  Favorite dinner meal? Snack? Medium rare steak with BBQ fried mini potatoes, corn and a seasonal vegetable; McFlurry from McTubbies [McDonalds]. What is your favorite track to race at? Why? Kawartha because I've done well there. What is your favorite big event in racing? Why? I've only raced there twice but Delaware during Little Brown Jug week. We have some nice races up here [Canada] like the North America Cup, but the Little Brown Jug and the atmosphere that surrounds it is fantastic.  How often are horses or racing on your mind? About 40% of the time. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? I've played hockey competitively my whole life, so play or watch hockey. I'm a big sports guy. I'll watch any sport. What is your favorite sports team? Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Browns. The Browns is the only team my dad and I cheer for together. When he was growing up, with the proximity of where we live -- there was no Buffalo Bills at the time -- he became a Cleveland Browns fan.  What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? I have a degree in management economics and industry finance.  What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Unfashionable. There were times in your career when you had a big barn and in 2020/2021 you decided to drive more. Why is there so much disparity in your career? Over the last almost eight to 10 years I've had the same number of horses, but I've been breaking some babies, swimming some horses, training some back because I'm at First Line Training Centre. Training is very competitive and I'm very far down the list in terms of success rate. With Ontario losing the slots there are not as many new owners entering the game because the purse structure has really changed. I have a great group of owners, including Bryan and Mary Grace Durst from Brydown Farms, who continue to support me. I break and train down a lot of their younger horses.  As far as the driving, it has just been about opportunity. Lately I've had more of a chance and tried to take advantage of those opportunities.   This year you didn't drive at all from February 6 to March 14. Why? The winter. I'm a fair weather driver I guess [laughing]. Again, that was more of an opportunity thing. My driving slows down during the winter as Ontario goes down to three tracks. On the list of drivers I fall much further down the line. I had a pretty nice January. I swept both legs and the final of a mini Pop-Up series with my buddy Friday Dean's mare, probably by favorite mare of all-time Kay's Shadow, and he decided to breed her. I have one really nice filly in my barn and she unfortunately was in a bad accident at the end of October at Mohawk. The plans were for her to be racing and ideally having some success on the Mohawk circuit, but she's just now on the comeback trail. Everything else I have is young or rehab horses. To be truthful, if you are ever going to have time off in Canada, it is the best time. You compete as both a trainer and a driver. Which are you better at? I think I'm better at breaking young horses and getting them started than maybe training them. It still is nice to train racehorses but it is so competitive that I would say at this point I'm better at driving than training, because driving you are generally a product of the horsepower.  In your best year as a trainer/driver your 5% commissions totaled just under $20,000. How do you survive in the sport?  I've done other things. I have beef cattle. I was smart when I was younger. I invested in buying a house and rented out rooms to help pay for the mortgage and the housing market in Canada is insane right now. So I made some money off the real estate. So while horse racing is my full-time gig, there are other avenues of making money. There is also a training bill that comes into play each month.  How many horses do you currently have in your barn? Four. Which is the best horse you've ever trained or driven? Ideal Jet. What was your best moment in harness racing? Winning my first-ever drive at the Delaware County Fairgrounds [with Jim Tom].  Where do you see your career going from here? As long as I can continue to make a living within racing it will be hard to get away from it. I certainly don't see my driving or training career taking off into some it isn't now. I enjoy what I do and love racing, but it doesn't dominate my life by any means. There are a lot of very talented people as both driver and trainers. A lot of those people are highly invested 24-7 and that is not necessarily my focus. I really enjoy being in the business and what I do now is a perfect work-life balance. What is the best advice you've ever gotten or given about  harness racing? Early on when I hadn't won a race I remember an older driver saying to me, 'a lot better drivers have been beaten with a lot better horses more often than not. It will come but don't try to force it.' That stuck with me because I was probably over-driving a little bit.  You posted a video of your 89-year-old grandma- who is a lifelong racing fan -- and her choice words on post-time drag. Maybe we need her as a racing ambassador? I don't think that racing could handle my grandmother as an ambassador. She lives and breathes horse racing. She'll skip out early on family functions so she doesn't miss a race. I remember getting a presentation as the leading driver at Kawartha Downs -- my grandmother never misses a day at the track and comes out for all my photos -- and the racing manager asked her who her favorite driver was with a wink. Without skipping a beat she said Bobby McClure. She shocked everyone and they usually get a decent crowd. But it's the truth, I'm second and that is just the type of thing she would say. She doesn't split hairs and has no qualms calling it as it is. She refuses to use the internet or a smart phone but she doesn't miss a beat. I can post videos every day of her and they would be very original. That's just her . . . she says she doesn't want to learn the internet because the people in the Standardbred business wouldn't be able to handle her if she knew how to reach everyone.  ► Celebrate the 10th anniversary of DRF Harness with FREE Harness Eye PPs You posted a picture of a Big Jim foal the other day. Are you involved as a breeder? I'm not the breeder on that one but I have breed and raised some foals along the way.  If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? Focus. In business the customer is always right, even when they are wrong. We focus everything on the horse people but we need to change our focus to the bettors. Canada experienced it. We had the Slots at Racetrack program and thought we were invincible. As a whole we lost our entire focus. It was absolute tailspin. We relied on government subsidies that we thought were infinite and they weren't. We need to change our focus to appease our customers. Post time drag is not helping. High takeout is not helping. There is no value in our game with the current takeout. We need to do everything in our power to speed up our game. Other sports they play the whole game in two-and-a-half hours and we take over five hours to run one program.  How do you view the future of harness racing? I don't view it as positive or negative. Horse racing in general is going to change significantly from what we know. There are going to be fewer tracks and fewer horses. I don't view it as a negative. It will look radically different. There will be tracks that don't exist and horse people that are no longer involved, but we have to make it a sport that the gamblers and the participants can have a fair shot at making money. As a whole harness racing always tries to save everyone instead of just saving itself. They don't want to make the changes necessary. They spread the money around to keep everyone afloat even though there is a limited amount. In the end that doesn't save any tracks. I see the reduction as a self-correction where the business model will make sense for everyone. Doesn't that self-correction eliminate someone like you from the sport? I would easily be collateral damage in all of that, but I don't worry about it because I have many capabilities through education and other avenues to make money. That is why we make irrational decisions, because we want to try to save everyone. A lot of people this is all they know and if they fill out a résumé for transferable skills, many of them don't have any that works well in other industries.  I would be fine. If my leaving harness racing would help it survive in a good form, I would gladly do it because I love it and the people in it. I could still watch it all the time if I wanted to.  Time for the stretch drive... Best Horse you ever saw: Zenyatta. With Standardbreds, I didn't see Niatross, so Somebeachsomewhere.  Lasix -- Yes or No?: Yes. Favorite TV Show?: Curb Your Enthusiasm. Trotters or Pacers?: A fast horse with a lot of heart. Gun to my head, a trotter.