Red Mile: Tim Tetrick reaches 15,000 career wins
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Hall of Famer Tim Tetrick became just the sixth driver in North American harness racing history to cross the 15,000-win milestone when he won in an overnight pace at The Red Mile on Monday afternoon (Sept. 21).
Coming into the day just one win away from the milestone, Tetrick crossed the threshold after lifting Brett Pelling pupil Vandross from a stalking trip to a comfortable 1:52 4/5 win in an $8,300 conditioned pace, which was his first drive of the day. The colt by Pebble Beach-Agent Q broke his maiden in just the second start of his career after a fifth-place finish on debut back on Sept. 1 at The Red Mile. He paid $2.84 to win.
Tim Tetrick, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019, began his driving career in 1998 at 16 years old driving at fairs in Illinois and began driving full time after graduating from high school in 1999. After just four years competing in Chicago, Tetrick collected back-to-back driving titles before moving his tack east in 2006. The year after that, Tetrick established a season record for driving wins and earnings with 1,189 victories, beating Walter Case Jr.’s record of 1,078 set in 1998, and $18,350,047 in earnings, besting the previous record of $15,099,597 set by Brian Sears in 2005. Tetrick broke his own earnings record the following year with $19,734,781 in purses, which remains the record to this day.
The 15,000-win mark was famously the longstanding ceiling for North American driving records, with Herve Filion holding the previous top mark of 15,183 wins in his storied career. In March of 2012, Dave Palone became the second driver in North American history to breach 15,000 wins and then also claimed the all-time driving record from Herve Filion in July of that year. Since Palone took the record, which he holds at over 21,000 wins, drivers Anthony Morgan, Aaron Merriman and David Miller have also surpassed the 15,000-win plateau.
Tetrick currently sits at the corner of another milestone. Ranked third all-time in driving purse earnings, Tetrick is just over $3 million away from beating John Campbell’s record of $299,892,141, which David Miller broke early in 2026 in progress to becoming the first driver to reach $300 million in purse earnings; coincidentally, Miller also scored his 15,000th win this year. Tetrick trails all-time money leader Miller by roughly $7 million.
-release (Red Mile)