by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Daryl Bontrager had more immediate success as a trainer than a driver, which is fine with him since he is more focused on training at the moment.

But he was happy to finally break through while actually sitting in the bike on June 1, when he drove 2-year-old pacing filly Kim’s Desire to a fair win in Converse, Ind. It was his first driving victory after going 0-for-27 last year.

“It meant a lot, it always feels good to win, obviously, but I was more out just for the experience,” Bontrager said. “I haven’t been focusing too much on driving at this point. I’ve mostly just been focusing on training, and it was a fair win. So I’m still looking for a first pari-mutuel win.

“I’ve got that same horse in (tonight at Hoosier Park). So hopefully, maybe I’ll get my first pari-mutuel win there. Mostly during pari-mutuel drives I’ll let my buddy Lewayne Miller do the driving for me.”

Photo courtesy of Daryl Bontrager

After going winless in 27 driving starts in 2015, Daryl Bontrager has won twice this month.

The 27-year-old has his own stable — which he plans on registering under the name of Elite Harness Racing — at the Elkhart Family Fairgrounds in Goshen, Ind. He trains seven horses, six that race and one that he is trying to get into racing condition. It is something Daryl has been working toward since his youth.

Born and raised Amish, he was always around ponies at home and spent most of his days driving them.

“I’d buy and break horses, get them broke to drive and sell them once I got them broke,” he said. “As I got older the size of my horses got a little bigger, I ended up having a trotting bred race pony that I bought as a yearling, and I raised her on the race pony circuit. She ended up winning stake races as a 2- and 3-year-old, and then it just kind of went from there.”

Bontrager raced ponies for seven years and set the goal of having a world champion. That came to pass in 2012 when race pony Skyway Majestic was the fastest 3-year-old pacer.

“I like setting goals, and once I reach them I set new ones,” he said. “I decided I wasn’t going to do Standardbreds until I achieved the goal of having a world champion. Once I did, then I decided to take my shot at the Standardbreds.”

Unlike the year-long wait he had to endure for his first driving win, Daryl won the first race he was ever listed in as a trainer two years ago. Overall he has amassed 37 training wins in 222 races.

Bontrager’s foray into Standardbreds wasn’t met with cheers by his family, but they finally relented.

“They’re not big on it,” he said. “They’re not big on the horse racing but they’ve accepted it and they know that I’ve been successful and they’re not trying to hold me back.”

There are numerous Amish-raised youths in harness racing throughout Bontrager’s part of the country, so he’s not a rarity.

“Only in my family,” said Daryl, who does have a brother-in-law that breeds horses. “The pony racing and trotting bred thing, that’s huge. Probably about 75 percent of the pony racing is young Amish kids. There’s a lot of Amish that do breed the Standardbreds, especially in Indiana and Ohio.”

And Daryl is proud to be a part of it all, as he has steadily been building a successful career. He owns part of every horse in his stable, which is housed 10 minutes from his Middlebury home.

Although his friend Miller — who is also Amish — has done most of Bontrager’s driving, he is getting some nice stakes races from other trainers. Thus, Daryl may be doing a lot of driving after getting his pari-mutuel license last year.

He’s not complaining.

“I like driving the young horses just to get them started the way I like them and I’ll probably keep driving the 2-year-old (Kim’s Desire) since Lewayne drives a lot for another big-time trainer and there will be some conflicts,” he said. “Very likely I’ll drive the 2-year-old throughout the year.”

He enjoyed driving her to that first victory, which came without much drama.

“I ducked her to dead last and then the pace was really slow going to the half,” he said. “I pulled her first up from last and by the time we hit the three-quarter pole I had her to the front and I just coasted home and she actually won by six. She won quite easily.”

It was more of the same the following week, when he ducked away to third, pulled her first up at the half and got her to the front in the last turn to win by 11 lengths.

And while training is the main focus now, Bontrager doesn’t discount being in the sulky more frequently in the future.

“I do enjoy driving, and at some point I may get to the point where I drive all my own, I’m not sure,” he said. “Right now I’m just kind of taking it one step at a time and seeing where things go.”

At the moment, everything is going just fine.