by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Born and raised in Canada, Scott Zeron has quickly made an impression on harness racing in both his homeland and across the border in the States.

Last Thursday night (March 21) at Woodbine Racetrack, the 23-year-old Zeron became the youngest driver in history to win 2,000 races. Two months shy of his 24th birthday, Zeron hit his milestone by driving Lark Seelster to victory in 1:57.4 to eclipse the record set by Matt Kakaley in February 2012.

A resident of the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Ontario, Scott is the son of Rick Zeron, who is currently sitting at 7,628 career victories. Rick helped, but never pushed his son into the business.

After getting his license and paying his dues at age 18, Scott broke through in a big way last year when he drove 3-year-old pacer Michael’s Power to victory in the Little Brown Jug, making him the youngest driver to ever win the prestigious event. He concluded the year by being named the Rising Star Award winner by the U.S. Harness Writers Association.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Scott Zeron

A three-time finalist for Canada’s Driver of the Year Award, Zeron picked up this season right where he left off last year — he is No. 2 in purses and No. 4 in wins in Canada — but took time out to discuss his career, his dad and his accomplishments with USTA newsroom senior correspondent Rich Fisher.

USTA: Last Thursday after your race you said you didn’t know what to say about being the youngest guy to win 2,000 races. After having some time for it to sink in, what do you have to say now?
SZ: You know what, it’s really surreal. When I was growing up, I’d always follow Tim Tetrick and he was smashing records and I always thought they’d never be beatable. He had an 1,100-win year one year and that was really crazy. But every driver will tell you it’s just day by day. You never think about accolades or what you can accomplish. But yeah, to be the youngest to get to 2,000 is pretty cool. It’s funny, after I got to 2,000 I thought ‘How the hell does Dave Palone have 15,000 wins, that’s just unbelievable.’

USTA: You’re only about 5,600 wins away from Rick Zeron. Have you told him you’re gunning for him?
SZ: (Laughing) I try not to do that. I remember the one year I had 606 wins, his biggest year was 437 or something around there. I was closing in on him all year and telling him ‘I think I’m going to get your record.’ So we had some fun with that. He’s got a lot of years on me; hopefully I’ll catch up to him.

USTA: Talk about the impact your dad has had on your career.
SZ: He’s been a great mentor. My dad and I are really, really close and good friends. I get to go into work with him every night, that’s pretty cool, too. A lot of times parents can be tough on a kid, especially my dad with the reputation he has. It would always be tough to live up to that.

But when I was first starting out, he went really light on me and it was a relief. I had a bunch of horses he trained, it didn’t matter if I drove them bad or not, he was very calm. He just gave me different advice on what I needed to do different. He taught me step by step, very patiently without being very aggressive. That’s helped me with other trainers and helped me with my driving.

USTA: If he were the opposite, would that have had an adverse effect?
SZ: I think it would have distanced me from him. I would have tried to isolate myself. I have to deal with pressure on a daily basis of driving horses. When you’re doing that, you don’t want to have it from everyone around you, too. I think he had the other approach. His father was tough on him, so he knew from those lessons how to take a different approach with me.

USTA: Your dad is not only a driver but a cook as well. Is he as good a cook as he leads us to believe?
SZ: Oh yeah, he’s very good. He tries to cook whenever he has a night off. He loves to barbecue with the steaks and the ribs and all that. I don’t want him to brag too much, but I really like his cooking. He wants to open a restaurant but hopefully he doesn’t do that. That’s a big task for him to manage. His cooking at home is good enough for me.

USTA: So have his culinary skills rubbed off on you?
SZ: (Laughing) Not at all, it’s made me the opposite. I’ve been lazy; I never learned to do that stuff. It’s always been done for me. I don’t even know how to cook.

New Image Media photo

Scott Zeron celebrates in the winner’s circle after career win No. 2,000.

USTA: He also once said you’d have to get a degree before you could ever start driving. Did he hold you to that?
SZ: Absolutely. He and my mother both were hard on me in that aspect. They told me education first and at the same time I was just about to start driving, so I had to make a decision. Here I am thinking ‘do I go to school or focus on driving, which I don’t even know yet if I can do.’ So it was basically an easy decision. I went to Sheridan College, which isn’t far from here, and finished a two-year program in accounting when I was 18.

USTA: So with doubts about driving, better to have something to fall back on?
SZ: Oh yeah. I’ve seen the ups and downs of the entire business, and driving is the most dangerous part of it. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how much success you’re having, your career could be over in one minute. So yeah, you have to have something else.

USTA: So give us a little history lesson. How old were you when you started taking this stuff serious?
SZ: You know it was never forced upon me. I didn’t start going to the races until I was 12. For most kids in this business that’s rare. They’re always going there from birth. When I was around 12 years old my dad would come home, I’d ask him how many wins he had and I said I wanted to go watch. But he never forced me to come to the races or to the barn, and he always trained horses so he always had a stable.

When I started going I just loved the thrill of it. I think it was just exciting watching my dad out there, winning races. I would go down into the winner’s circle with him and do the little Zorro that he does (with his whip).

I got my groom’s license at 14. The story is my dad was always stabled at Mohawk, and I didn’t know it but you had to be 16 to jog a horse on a track. So when I was 14 or 15 that was the first year I actually started to jog a horse. I went out there, security came, and long story short, I didn’t get behind a horse again before I was 16. (Laughing) I wrote and passed my trainer’s test before I drove a horse.

Before I was 18 my dad let me school a horse and he would let me go behind the gate, and what a rush that was! You’re back there with all these guys you’ve grown up watching. I got the buzz really quick. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I never knew if I would be good enough or get the right support but I was fortunate to have that. I got my license and boom! I went right from there.

USTA: How did you get the support?
SZ: A guy named Victor Puddy put me on a stable of 30 horses, including six claimers, so to know I was going to get a lot of drives was huge. My dad couldn’t help me, because when I was starting out all he had were horses on the WEG circuit. I couldn’t drive there, so I put my time in on B tracks. You need to have your faith out there and it’s a long process. Victor was a monumental guy to start out with.

USTA: Do you remember your first win?
SZ: Oh yeah. It was with a trotter I owned, Malabar Di Jesolo. It came in my sixth lifetime start. But first off there was the pressure of your first lifetime start. Every top driver at WEG was saying all the top drivers won their first start. So after I lost my first start I said I don’t know if I should drive anymore.

I just had one drive on the card; my dad came out two hours away to watch me drive one horse. I’ve always been small, but when I was 18 I was extremely small. This horse…I couldn’t even hold him. I ended up finishing fifth. I get off the track huffing and puffing and I said, ‘If this is what driving horses is like I don’t ever want to drive a horse again!’

USTA: So what changed your mind?
SZ: My dad said that’s a rare horse to drive, they don’t all pull like that.

USTA: But that first win was exciting?
SZ: Oh yeah, it was great. We had a bunch of guys come down. Jody Jamieson was in the winner’s circle. We had six guys in there lifting up the bike.

USTA: Did winning the Rising Star Award last year give you confidence or put pressure on you?
SZ: That just gave me confidence, and getting acknowledged in the States was amazing. I only had some 30 or 40 drives in the States, I was lucky enough to win the Jug. I had an all-around great year in the States and in Canada. But that night was crazy. When I went down to the Dan Patch Awards and saw the people that were there and just the titans of the industry, it was a great acknowledgement.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

Scott Zeron and Michael’s Power were the winners in the 2012 Little Brown Jug.

USTA: What did winning the Little Brown Jug do for your career?
SZ: Phew! I couldn’t even tell you. I feel it will only have a ripple effect for years to come. I can’t wait to go back next year to see what kind of impact it was. I had only been to that race once the year prior and I knew how big it was. If I had drove in it 10 times then finally won it that 11th, then it would be the most exciting thing in world. Last year was my first time in it. I was really nervous. I had a horse where I didn’t know if we were the favorite or not but I knew it had the capabilities. To come through and win it was so surreal. It’s the biggest race I’ve ever won, but since it was my first time I still don’t know exactly what I really did.

But I know that (trainer) Casie Coleman said “All I want to do is win the Jug.” I wasn’t nervous going in the first heat, but going into that second heat I got the rail. I let out a scream. I knew it was up to me then.

USTA: With all the early success you had, how do you keep yourself grounded, and keep it all in perspective?
SZ: You know what it is for me? The next race I go out and I lose, it all comes back to reality. Winning is winning and it gets better every time, but losing is absolutely terrible. I’m a sore loser. I will learn and hopefully deal with getting nosed out at the wire as my career goes on. But everybody says you’re only as good as your last race and you always have to be improving as a driver. People aren’t going to stand by you based on what you did four years ago.

USTA: Are you setting any goals this year?
SZ: I always set goals and always want to better myself every year whether it’s wins or money, but until the news of what’s going to happen in Canada comes out, I’m not going to set any goals because I don’t know where I’ll be racing. I’ve gotten a lot of calls to go down to the States, to drive at the Meadowlands, Pocono, Yonkers. I have a lot of opportunities. But Canada has always been my home and I don’t want to leave here just yet, but we will see in the next couple of weeks.

I’ll still be racing in the States this year. When you talk about the five best drivers, 99 percent of the people will say it’s the guys home-based at the Meadowlands. I think to have that legacy you have to end up being at the Meadowlands. I want to be there in the future, but hopefully it’s not right around the corner.

USTA: Well Scott, thanks for the time and continued success to you.
SZ: Thanks, any time man.