by Tim Bojarski, president, UNY-USHWA

Batavia, NY — With the final three cards of the 2014 racing season being held Friday (Dec. 5) and Saturday (Dec. 6) at Batavia Downs, the top horsemen of the meet have been named by the Upstate New York Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association.

Kevin Cummings was named the driver of the meet, J.D. Perrin was the trainer of the meet and Mike Caprio was awarded as the Comeback Driver of the Year.

Kevin Cummings

Kevin Cummings has simply owned the 2014 Batavia meet. He currently has 158 wins (almost twice as many as his nearest competitor), $693,013 in purses earned and a UDR of .390 for the session.

Cummings is having a career year overall for wins (329), earnings ($1.53 million) and UDR (.362), his highest for any year he had at least 500 starts. That UDR also places him 11th in North America among all drivers.

Cummings has finished in the money 54 percent of the time this year.

J.D. Perrin

J.D. Perrin has followed up a career year with an almost mirror image. He currently has 43 conditioning wins for the Batavia meet and that puts him on top of his peers by four. His horses have winnings in excess of $200,000 and those performances have also earned Perrin a UTR of .346.

His 12-month body of work has yielded 120 victories, $550,188 earned and a UTR of .362. Like Cummings, his horses have also finished in the money 54 percent of the time this year.

Paul White photos

Mike Caprio

Mike Caprio has bounced back in a big way on the local scene in 2014 as he had his best year at the lines since 2006. The 35- year veteran’s totals for starts (157), wins (23) and earnings ($144,000) were his best in eight years after racing on a part-time basis during that time.

For his career, Caprio has won 1,885 races and more than $4 million in purses.

This year he had the distinction of being the regular driver of both Batavia Downs Trotter of the Year (BZ Glide) and Pacer of the Year (Fireyourguns).

Kevin Cummings, J.D. Perrin and Mike Caprio will receive their awards in the Purple Haze winner’s circle on Saturday night (Dec. 6) during UNY-USHWA’s Night of Distinction.