by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Like most 18-year-olds, Braxten Boyd doesn’t worry much about his blood pressure. Why else would his biggest interests be golf and harness racing — two activities that thrive on conjuring angst and frustration.

Boyd is headed to Jackson (Mich.) Community College in September to play for the golf team, but will commute the 30 minutes from his Hillsdale home in order to help his dad, Brett, with their small stable of horses. He is attending college as a fallback in case he does not reach his main goal of becoming a Standardbred driver at some of the nation’s biggest tracks.

“That would be my dream, to race horses for a living,” said Boyd, who earned his first career driving win on July 6. “I would love to be a driver. I would absolutely kill just to be able to show up at Hoosier, or Scioto, and I guess The Meadowlands, but I would like to think a little bit more realistic. But man, that would be one dream come true, to be able to drive horses every night and do what I love. I would never work a day in my life if that was my job.”

Photo courtesy of Braxten Boyd

Braxten Boyd became enamored by the racing game a few years after being introduced to golf, when he watched his dad pull off a slick move to win a race.

For now, he is content helping his dad around the barn and getting fair drives when possible until school starts. Boyd is a recent high school graduate, having played soccer, basketball and golf on the varsity level. He averaged around 42 for nine holes on the course.

“If I play good I’ll drop in the 30s, if I play bad I won’t shoot much more than 45, 46,” he said. “I’m not a scratch golfer but I hope to work to there. My whole family is really big into golf. I started when I was 3 or 4. I learned it and never played again until I was going into my freshman year.”

Boyd became enamored by the racing game a few years after being introduced to golf, when he watched his dad pull off a slick move to win a race.

“I remember falling in love with one certain horse (Cagey Attack) that really just hooked me into the business,” Boyd said. “He was a horse that would come from behind. I’ll never forget, he was 10 lengths off at the top of the stretch on a five-eighths track, and there was about a space just as big as the bike, and he shot up that space the entire time and just barely won with my dad.

“That right there hooked me right in. That was one of the most exhilarating moments ever. I was probably 7 or 8. I started jogging when I was with my dad, and the first time I jogged a horse by myself was when I was 10, and it was Cagey Attack.”

And for one of the few times, Brett Boyd misread the situation with his son when it came to Cagey Attack.

“My dad would always say ‘You can’t drive this horse because it’s too aggressive,’” Braxten recalled. “The first time I sat behind him, he knew it was me. We got out there and he just trotted around like it was nothing.”

In the end, Brett got a good price for the horse and sold him, much to Braxten’s displeasure.

“I don’t think my dad ever heard the end of that,” he said with a laugh.

Other than that, however, Braxten cannot praise his mentor enough when it comes to the racing game. Brett is a long-time trainer/driver and served as president of the Michigan Harness Horsemen’s Association for over a decade.

“I wouldn’t know a lick about the horses without him, he’s taught me everything I know,” Boyd said. “I don’t think there’s been hardly a thing — other than picking up on a few conversations between different trainers and him — that I haven’t learned from my dad. He’s got a small stable, but man, he knows what he’s talking about. That helps a lot.”

One of Braxten’s first hands-on experiences with harness racing came as a pre-teen, when his dad let him announce some fair races at age 8. After a few years, Brett felt he was ready for pari-mutuel action and got him behind the mike of the now defunct Jackson Harness Raceway, where Brett served as track announcer.

“He let me call the very first race, when not everybody was there,” Boyd said, adding proudly, “I’ll tell you what, it was the best call I ever called in my life. I won’t forget it. It was just beginner’s luck. Usually at that age I would mess up a name; I probably messed up one time that whole race. And it was a good race. It’s a great memory.”

Boyd’s announcing career didn’t last much longer as he became more interested in handling the horses. Braxten got fully invested when Brett’s stable maxed out at 25. It currently has five, with two being in Indiana and two in Minnesota.

After getting his fair license last year, Boyd had one drive late in the season last year and finished second.

“I was kind of disappointed in myself,” he said. “(Ustrotting.com) should have been doing this story on me a year ago if I’d have drove it right.”

His first drive this year was a qualifier at Hawthorne in early January, when he was off the pace and came the final quarter in :27.4 to take first with Mr Ranger (who is now in Minnesota).

“That was quite a trip to be on,” Boyd said.

His first official win came July 6 at the Eaton County 4-H Fair in Charlotte, Mich., when he drove Megatron to victory.

“I had the four hole, which was the outside in that race,” he said. “I just stepped out of there, the horse at the rail left and I sat in the two hole. That first turn at Charlotte is pretty sharp, I didn’t want my horse rocking in the first turn and making a boo-boo or something like that.

“So, I sat in the two hole, moved him on the backside, got to the top. We just floated down, got to the half in (1:07.3) and from there we opened up on them and he was pretty much under wraps going to the wire. We won by five or six (in 2:08.3), probably one of the most thrilling moments of my life other than Hawthorne.”

And when no one was looking, Boyd held his own little celebration after coming across the finish line.

“I definitely let out a little victory yell,” he said. “Once I got in the spot where many people wouldn’t really hear me, I had to let a little yell out. When I got excited from sports in my past, you let a little yell out. I had to get one of those in.”

Unfortunately, Braxten is unsure when he might get another chance to drive in the near future as Megatron returned to the pari-mutuel tracks.

“We’ve got one horse in the barn right now so it’s kind of difficult to get drives,” he said. “There’s not many people that want to get someone who’s been behind the gate three times.”

In the meantime, he will continue to work with his dad and formulate some plans about his racing future. One of his thoughts is to train a few horses in Minnesota next summer and pick up some catch drives.

“We’ll see how it all shakes out with our horses, what will be best for them,” Boyd said. “If I have my pari-mutuel license by then, I might just stay home and drive these guys where ever they go.”

Prior that, he will embark on a collegiate golfing career. And Braxten notes, unequivocally, that golf and harness racing go hand in hand when it comes to teaching patience.

“It’s just, you know, rolling with the punches,” he said. “In horse racing, you can go through weeks where you are just struggling, or your horse is injured, or something bad can absolutely go wrong. It’s just such a swing of emotions. Just like golf. In golf you can all of a sudden be as high as it gets, you’re even-par, two-under, all of a sudden you hit one bad shot, you make an eight and you’re all the way up to three-over.

“With golf, one thing can ruin a day. In harness racing, one wrong step a horse makes, if he makes a break, it ruins the day. You’ve got to learn to just deal with stuff and move on.”

With that attitude, sounds like his blood pressure will be just fine.