From the outside looking in, harness racing is defined by numbers - odds and payouts, final times and records, and purses and earnings. On paper, the MGM Yonkers International Trot is a one-million-dollar race comprised of 10 trotters from seven countries contested at a distance of a mile and a quarter. On paper, Lexus Kody, the winner of the 2025 MGM Yonkers International Trot, is a winner of nearly $1.5 million and 33 races. The truth is that harness racing is made up of much more than numbers. Those on the inside who have experienced it understand the value is far more than odds and payouts, final times and records, and purses and earnings. For Ron Burke, Yannick Gingras, and the entire ‘Burke Brigade’, the 2025 MGM Yonkers International Trot was a milestone achievement as they all secured their first win in the prestigious race. For Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Tosies, the race was a career achievement, and for him Lexus Kody is more than his stats, more than a racehorse. Tosies is a veteran caretaker in the harness racing industry, starting his career over 35 years ago. “My brother was an owner with Kevin McDermott and I just went to the barn and started falling in love with the horses,” explained Tosies. “I actually started working with Kevin with a horse named Mack Action, one of my first horses I fell in love with. Then, I worked for John McDermott for 15 years, then Anthony Regina, and my last job before Ronnie Burke was with Tom Cancelliere. “I had knee replacement surgeries and was down for a while, and then I wound up going to work for Ronnie. That was over seven years ago and I’ve been here ever since,” continued Tosies. “The difference is, I always worked with nice horses, but with the smaller barns, a lot of grooms go unnoticed because they never get an opportunity. The thing about the Burke barn is you get the opportunity to work with great horses. He’s a great trainer, but his people and grooms, he appreciates them. He’s as loyal as can be and it kind of makes it gratifying in that sense. You want to do well.” And ‘doing well’ is putting it lightly. Tosies is the caretaker for five horses including the newest millionaire trotter Lexus Kody, a 7-year-old gelded son of Archangel and the Ken Warkentin mare Lexus Helios. In addition to ‘Kody’s’ resume of achievements, Tosies is no stranger to the winner’s enclosure. “Most of my big wins have come with Ronnie. My first big win would have been seven years ago. One was an elimination in the Adios with a horse named The Greek Freak, the first horse I fell in love with in the Burke barn. Then I had a little filly that won nine in a row. A lot of small stakes. Her name was Dune Hill. Her ninth win in a row was Ronnie’s 11,000th win and he’s gotten a lot more since then! “I was lucky enough to take care of Hillexotic, who was also one of the better trotters. When he came in, he had about $300,000 made. They bought him thinking he’d be a good horse but just an open trotter and he ended up making $660,000 in two and a half years.” Hillexotic, a winner of over $1.5 million to date, was under the care of Tosies from April 2022 to July 2024. “The day they sold him, I was distraught. He was my heart horse. The only other horse I would have had a passion for more might have been when I worked for John McDermott, a horse named Hurrikane Big George. But Hillexotic was just…Murph, our second trainer and a great guy, called me in the office and he said, ‘it’s the hardnest thing I’ve ever had to do – tell the groom.’ And then he told me they were selling him. “The day he left, I cried like a baby. I lost it. I have no kids. My horses are literally my kids. And you fall in love with some more than others. The day he left, Murph called me and said, ‘I just want to give you a heads up, if you want to go say goodbye’. I went in the barn, I threw my arms, I was literally shrieking, ‘my baby, my baby’.” While Hillexotic held the spotlight in Tosies’ heart at that time, Tosies gave the same love and attention to the other horses in his care, including Lexus Kody, who was in the shadows standing by for when Tosies needed him most. “I had Kody at the same time and I love all my horses, but Hilly was my boy. I always said he was the best horse I ever rubbed. He set a world record at Chester and he was just a good, trying, honest racehorse. I remarked to my brother that I would never have a horse like that again. He was that class of horse. And then, along came Kody. It just literally blossomed from that point on. “The last Hambletonian Day, he went in 1:49 4/5 and became the first Ontario-sired trotter to ever trot sub-50; [ear] plugs in. That was maybe a week after Hillexotic left. At the time, I was still in the dumps. I was in the winner’s circle and Mark Weaver was rubbing my head and he said he was sorry. I just yelled out because I was ecstatic, I said, ‘I still got Kody!’ It seems like since that day, he’s just gotten better, almost like he’s trying to please me. I always thought he was a good horse, but he’s just been beyond what I ever thought he would be. He’s just a good boy.” As a caretaker, Tosies believes it’s all about the horse and that’s the way it always should be. For him, each horse has a personality and he knows each of his horses very well, especially Kody and his quirks. “Everybody thinks he’s crazy, but he’s not crazy. He’s a big teddy bear. If you walk in the barn, he might pin his ears at you, but he’s not mean. He really is a big-hearted horse on and off the track. Just a sweetheart. He’s got a lot of funny quirks like he’ll chop his gums and he’ll kind of paw with his front legs. He’s just a big, good-hearted horse. I love him with all my heart. Not because he’s a good horse, but because he is who he is. When he won the Maple Leaf Trot, I said to somebody that I was not crying for me, but I was crying because he finally got his due.” A week before winning the $1 million feature at the Yonkers half-mile oval, Kody put in a career-best 1:49 1/5 mark in the $459,900 Maple Leaf Trot at Woodbine Mohawk Park in line to Gingras. He kept up his success to go three-in-a-row with the Grade 1 MGM Yonkers International Trot. “Like I said, I’ve been doing this over 35 years and nothing’s ever come close to this. He won on the biggest stage in the world and it meant the world to me. It’s unbelievable, like a fairytale,” Tosies said. “I got a call from Ronnie and he just said ‘I just want to let you know you’re in’ and I knew what that meant, that he got invited to the International Trot.” While majority of caretakers in harness racing don’t find the spotlight as Tosies had said before, many have made it to the big stage with their horses and to the winner’s circle, but one thing sets Tosies apart from the rest in his triumph with Lexus Kody. “My foot had been bothering me. I said I wasn’t going to go to a doctor until after the International because I didn’t want to miss it. About eight or nine days later, on Tuesday, it was really bothering me. I was just going to get it checked out because I didn’t want to be hobbling around on International Trot Day. I went to the doctor and she immediately sent me to the hospital. I had a severe foot infection. “When I got in the hospital, the first thing I said to them was, ‘listen I have a wedding to go to on Saturday for my godson and I have to get out of there.’ Wednesday came and I didn’t get out. Thursday came and I happened to get lucky and got this nurse who asked if I really had to get home. We had to wait for my last blood test and the cultures came back negative, but I still had to have surgery to take a small bone out of my foot. [The International Trot] was the biggest race of my life, so I got discharged. I just had to be there. Not so much for the race, just for him.” On the Tuesday following the International Trot, Tosies went in for his surgery after postponing it to make it to the big day. After winning the race, he ran up the hill to greet his horse in the winner’s circle, leading to remarks from Ron Burke that he had forgot all about his pain in the excitement! “I was feeling no pain. I can say at least for this week, I look after the best trotter in the world.” The day before his surgery, he ventured to the barn to see his horses, especially Kody. “My horses are on one wall and I call it Murderers Row with Kobes Gigi, Lexus Kody, Nighthawk, and TH Colby. Four really, really nice horses and even better souls to boot. That makes my job easy. I honestly look forward to going to work every day. I enjoy my day, it’s not a job, it’s a passion. Those horses are just very, very special to my heart.” Tosies’ regular day-to-day isn’t focused on chores or assignments, but rather just one goal: keep the horses happy. And he’s blessed to work with a great team to make sure his mission is accomplished. “In our barn we have a great group of guys, and Murph, the second trainer, is just unbelievable. He goes unnoticed. I respect Ronnie so much. He likes when you like your horses. And he mentioned me in his interview. He almost broke up a little because I’ve been chirping to him. When Kody came in January, we were training and I said Ronnie just save me a ticket in Florida so I can accept Kody’s Trotter of the Year Award and he looked at me and said, ‘you are the optimist, that is a long way away.” Fast forward nine months and Tosies’ predictions may actually become reality. Lexus Kody has a near two to one lead in earnings over the second horse in his division Periculum ($879,472 to $466,458). And so, despite his own pain and injury, Jo Jo was at Yonkers, in the paddock for the 2025 International Trot when his horse Lexus Kody won, wearing the same outfit he wears for every race that Kody is in – a Burke Brigade shirt adorned with a Mickey Burke Sr. autograph. Not there for himself, for recognition, or for any bit of the numbers that define harness racing, but for the horse. For Kody.