Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Despite starting to think it might never happen, Curtis Grismore clutched ferociously to his dream.

“Always,” he said. “It was always in my head.”

It has now expanded beyond his head and is on full display for all to see. Grismore is living out his lifelong ambition of becoming a harness racing driver.

The son of driver Greg Grismore, who has more than 7,000 wins lifetime, Curtis got his first handful of drives last year on Ohio’s fair circuit before heading to Northfield Park and Northville Downs this season. On March 29, he got his first win behind Dreamsteeler at Northville. One night later at the same track, he notched his second win with Liberal. Both horses were trained by Edward Zubkoff Jr.

Curtis Grismore is living out his lifelong ambition of becoming a harness racing driver. Raymond K. Lance photo.

“I really enjoyed that second one,” Grismore said. “I came off the pace, coming in the last turn I still had a good hold of the horse, I asked him to go and he took off and he won by about six lengths. At the wire I just remember letting out a nice kind of yell of excitement.

“It felt good to get the first one Friday and come back Saturday and get another one. Just trying to start out driving (at Northville) and having some success the first two nights, it was a very good feeling.”

And it was a long time coming. Grismore grew up around harness racing, watching his grandfather and father do it as a young boy.

“It was always something I loved,” he said. “But I didn’t really have the chance to get into the business the normal years you’d be starting out.”

That’s because when Curtis was 9 years old, Greg stopped training to focus on catch driving. He left Ohio to tackle the eastern tracks at Yonkers, Harrah’s Chester and the Meadowlands, among others. With his dad gone, there was no one to guide Grismore and no horses for him to work with. He tried playing sports in middle school but they didn’t extinguish the Standardbred fire burning inside him.

“All those years I always had a dream of doing it but the reality of it wasn’t very practical because I just never really had a shot to do it,” he said. “It was always something I looked up to my grandfather and my dad for doing it and something I always wanted to do myself, but it was just never possible at that time.”

After high school, Curtis went to trade school to become a diesel mechanic, which is his current full-time job. And yet, the desire still gnawed at him.

Finally, at age 23, he touched base with Amy Hollar, the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association representative for Northfield Park, who helps her husband, trainer Buck Hollar, in the barn.

“I said ‘Hey, I’ve been curious, I’ve been wanting to get back in the horses,’” Grismore said. “I had a conversation with her and she said I was more than welcome on my off days to come into the barn and help and learn and all that good stuff. So for a while I was in the barn with them, helping them get horses ready. They’d go out and jog, come back in, I’d bathe them, did some barn work.

“From there I went to work with (trainer) Rosy Weaver, helped her out in the barn. She got me out jogging and doing some training miles and I was with her for a little bit. And then I went on and got my (qualifying and fair) license and started qualifying, doing the fairs and stuff like that. Within about a year I was ready to go get my (provisional license) and get out on the track.”

In February he bought his first horse, a 4-year-old pacing mare named Beach Report. He began his racing career driving her at Northfield Park, which is near his Novelty, Ohio residence. In his first start with her, Grismore finished second.

“It was kind of frustrating because I was so close with her so many times,” he said. “This one race, in the last turn I cleared to the front coming down the stretch. I thought I was home a winner and I got zapped right at the wire. That was disappointing because the feeling was so close. Out of four starts I was second with her three times by anywhere from (three-quarters of a length) to a neck. I was close and just couldn’t get it.”

He is keeping the horse to race at Northfield but wanted to start racing predominantly at Northville Downs on weekends. The Michigan track is a three-hour ride from Novelty, but Grismore felt he had a better shot at getting horses than at nearby Northfield, which is home to 2018 Driver of the Year Aaron Merriman and Ronnie Wrenn Jr., who rank first and third, respectively, in wins this year in North America.

“It seemed like a good place to go to try and start my driving career,” Curtis said. “My dad started at Raceway Park and all those tracks before he came up to Northfield. Northfield’s got a very tough driving colony there. It’s kind of hard as a new guy starting out to get some drives there. Northville just seemed like a close place to go up and try to get some experience.”

Curtis had done a lot of catch paddocks for Zubkoff and maintained a strong relationship with the trainer. Once he got his P license, Zubkoff offered him three drives at Northville so he could get started.

He can only hope his first race there with Dreamsteeler was an omen of things to come.

“I had the two hole,” he recalled. “I came out of the gate and was trying to clear to the front. She took me out past the first turn until I made the front. I had a couple horses stacked up three wide on the lead. Art McIlmurray came three wide trying to get a lead and kind of run me the whole mile, so I had competition going to the half and his horse started fading back. She cut the mile and she was real good and I took her in for the win.

“It was close, I won by a half (length). Coming across the line it was very exciting. A moment I’d been waiting for, for a very long time. I put a lot of hard work into getting into driving. It was a sweet moment.”

Greg Grismore, back in Ohio now, still does not have a training stable but that does not prevent the veteran driver from doling out invaluable advice.

“The main thing he tells me is probably patience,” he said. “To this day we’ll go over replays and stuff like that. He’ll say, ‘You could have done this in that situation.’ He gives me some tips and pointers on driving style, what’s a good and bad move on the track with the style of horse you’re driving. He helps me in the racing aspect a lot.”

Curtis feels good about how far he has come in such a short time. Even Greg has been happily surprised at his son’s speedy progress.

“He told me all the time I was crazy thinking that in that short amount of time I would be able to do what I’m trying to do,” Grismore said. “I’ve always kind of been a quick learner. I took it very serious. Every day I took off from work or every chance I had I was out there sitting behind a horse or trying to learn something with them. I picked it up pretty quick.”

His plan is to remain at Northville Downs until the end of that season in June and then try and get whatever races he can at Northfield. Whatever happens, he is satisfied with where things stand at the moment.

“It kind of couldn’t have went any better,” he said. “I was kind of discouraged at first starting so late, not having as much experience, per se, as some of the younger guys who have been doing it since their teenage years. But I picked it up quick and I’m just giving it my best.”