by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — It was a night to celebrate a milestone for Joe W. Putnam and — so hoped an inquisitor – a night to celebrate Joe’s son following in his footsteps.

The interviewer did not get the answer he sought, however, as Joe D. Putnam was a senior catcher for the Pendleton (Ind.) Heights High School baseball team who was also in his fifth year of running a successful mowing business for himself.

“I always told people I wasn’t going to get involved in the horse business,” said Joe D., who goes by Joey. “When dad got his 3,000th win at Hoosier Park, they interviewed him and then asked me what my plans were and I said I was going to go to college.”

The question came two years too early.

“Look where I am now,” Joey added with a laugh.

He’s in the sulky, in the stables, in the paddock and, on June 22, was in the winner’s circle for the first time.

After gaining his qualifying/fair license early in the spring, the 19-year-old drove several races behind a 3-year-old trotting filly named Kidswillbesassy.

“She was making breaks,” Putnam said. “She was a good learning horse but we weren’t having much luck. It’s funny; now I’m racing her and she’s doing pretty good.”

Photo courtesy of Joey Putnam

Joey Putnam’s first win as a driver came with U’ll Learn at the Harrison County Fair in Corydon, Ind.

But not as good as U’ll Learn did on Putnam’s memorable first win at the Harrison County Fair in Corydon, Ind. The 2-year-old pacing filly was making her first career start with a driver who raised her. U’ll Learn was homebred by Joe W. and his partners, Trent Stohler and Bill Reepmeyer. The Putnams own the filly now.

“I wanted to get a baby so I could grow with it, and have something to drive since I’m just starting,” Putnam said. “You’ve got to work your way up. It’s not like you just want to hop on some horses for other owners.”

As the months went on, the novice horseman began seeing good things in his filly.

“I’ve been with her since Day One as far as breaking her,” he said. “I thought we had something to work with. She’s by Real Desire and out of Western Kit and they’re all known for having to mature their 2-year-old year, and not really racing. The first two we had didn’t race as 2-year-olds. But she trained down really well. I was excited to get to the race with her, this being my first year of driving as well.”

U’ll Learn drew post three and got away second. She followed the leader until pulling even at the three-quarter pole.

“We got into the last turn for home, and she just felt live,” Putnam said. “I chirped to her a couple times, she just went on, she won by about two or three lengths.”

And the joy was twofold, since Joey not only got his first win, but did it with the first horse he could take credit for.

“That one was huge, it meant a lot, because I broke her and she was mine, not somebody else’s,” he said. “So that was pretty awesome. If there was any horse I could have won with that would have been the one. I’ve had a few others when I was younger but this is the first year I’ve been all-in in the horse business.”

Indeed it is. Despite the success of his dad, who has 3,015 driving wins and 1,007 training wins, Joey found the business too unpredictable for his taste.

“I’ve seen how awesome it can be and before you know it you’re on the down,” he said. “There’s a lot of adversity.”

Putnam was content to play football, basketball and baseball through sixth grade before settling on baseball in middle school. He played travel baseball and was in a different state four days a week, while also playing for the high school varsity team all four years. He would occasionally go out to the barns to jog a horse but there was no instant love affair.

To his dad’s credit, he never pressured Joey into following in his footsteps. He and his wife actually encouraged their son to get a college education.

“He liked when I came and helped at the farm,” Putnam said. “It was never anything serious. It was jog a few horses, sweep, water, it wasn’t like anything big. He never really pushed, we never really talked about it. He would ask if I wanted to drive. I just never really did. I’d go to the track and sit up in the clubhouse and grandstand, but never in the paddock, until last winter in Miami Valley, Ohio. That’s when it really started.”

Upon graduating from high school in 2016 with baseball in his rearview mirror — he turned down some small schools who recruited him in order to maintain the mowing business — Putnam suddenly took a bigger interest in the horses. He was already enrolled at Ivy Tech, a community college in his hometown of Anderson, Ind., and is now in his sophomore year.

But during that summer of ’16, something clicked while working with his dad.

“The summers prior I always helped out but if I wanted to go with friends or go to baseball or go do things, he was pretty lenient,” Putnam said. “But that summer after senior year, I felt like it was a job and I took it pretty serious at the farm.”

Once college started he continued in the stables, taking classes in the afternoons and evenings in order to work the mornings. During an annual family vacation in Florida during his freshman year, father and son talked about Joey possibly driving and the decision was made. Putnam got his qualifying/fair license in the spring and just earned his provisional license on Sept. 7.

He is pursuing an associate’s degree in Business Management at Ivy Tech, but still has some racing to do as it has been a fairly successful rookie year.

Putnam has driven in 49 fair races or qualifiers and he has teamed with a 6-year-old named Sum It Up to win four times. The two set the track record in 1:58 at a fair in Xenia, Ohio and will be in the final of the Signature Series Trot during Jug Week in Delaware, Ohio.

Sum It Up was owned by Frank and Cheryl O’Mara. After Frank passed away earlier this year, Cheryl approached Joe W. about training the horse.

“My dad used to drive him, and now I’m driving him,” Putnam said. “That’s going to be a fun day in Delaware.”

Joey hasn’t forgotten about U’ll Learn, of course. The horse was named when Putnam got her, but he wouldn’t dare change it.

“It’s such a good name, it goes pretty well with everything that is going on this year,” Joey said. “I’m learning about driving for sure. And I tell the employees ‘You’ll learn’ when certain situations arise in the barn. Before her first start I was telling everybody ‘You’ll learn’ (about how good she is). She proved what she was made of that day. That was pretty awesome.”

Speaking of learning, Putnam had plans on transferring to Ball State after getting his associate’s degree, but that may be put on hold.

“I want to give driving a shot,” he said. “It’s going to take a few years to get established and make a name for myself. But as long as that opportunity keeps coming I’m going to see what I can do for a driving career and training. I’d like to work my way up the next five years. My ultimate goal is to be a top driver. That’s where I see myself headed. But I’m not going to get away from working at the barn in the morning. It’s a lot of work but it’s very rewarding.”

And he has the right guy to learn from in his father.

“He’s a huge influence really, and even more over the last year,” Putnam said. “I always appreciated how hard he’s worked, but now I see it first hand, running the roads. He’s always wanted me to go to college, that way I have options. But now that I’ve gotten involved with this, we have fun going to the fairs together. Him and my mom both push my studies just to make sure, but I think he likes it a lot now that I’m involved.”

More than likely, that’s what the Hoosier Park interviewer was hoping to hear two years ago; proving once again that some things just take time.