Rich Fisher

Trenton NJ — Kyle Cummings is an interesting dude. In elementary school, he hardly hung around the barn and showed little interest in the family business of harness racing.

And yet . . .

“I can remember being in grade school and I had no interest in school. I thought, ‘Well I already know where I’m going,’” said the 22-year-old, who is enjoying a career year in the sulky in northwestern New York. “And as soon as I got out of high school, that’s exactly where I went. Right to the racetrack. There was never a doubt. I just dreamed of racing horses my entire life.”

He just did a good job of disguising that dream as a pre-adolescent; although he did jog his first horse — Dine N Dash — at an early age.

“He was a little guy my parents had at the time,” Cummings recalled. “It was a little different than I thought it would be. I was a little timid at first, but the more you’re out there (the more comfortable you get).”

This season Kyle Cummings has 88 wins, 79 seconds and 97 thirds in 602 starts, good for a career-high $750,804 in earnings. Bill Burke photo.

Kyle began getting out there several years later, and it should hardly be a surprise considering the cloth from which he is cut. Over the past 45 years, his family of trainers and drivers includes his dad and mom, Todd and Tammy Cummings; grandfathers John Cummings Sr. and Hugh Stevens; grandmother Cindy Stark-Casale; uncles John Cummings Jr., Tony Cummings, Kevin Cummings, John Stark Jr. and Doug Ackley; and aunt Laurie Stark.

All Cummings needed to do was open his eyes in the morning to learn something new.

“If I drive one bad, they’re going to let me know it,” he said. “They have helped me come a long way at a much more rapid speed. It’s very tough to get good right away. A lot of things come from experience. They’ve been able to help me move along way faster than I even thought I would be able to grasp it.

“I can’t say enough about learning from my dad. He’s helped a lot, and my uncle Kevin, watching him every night, lining up behind the gate with him. He does a great job especially with these old claimers, he can really get the most out of them.”

Along with his kin education, Cummings has hooked up with trainer James Clouser Jr., who couldn’t find enough drivers to consistently race all his horses each night. The trainer put his trust in young Kyle, who has not disappointed.

This season Cummings has 88 wins, 79 seconds and 97 thirds in 602 starts, good for a career-high $750,804 in earnings. Cummings finished fifth at Buffalo with 46 wins in 336 races. That meet ended in mid-July and Kyle is currently tied for fourth at Batavia with 30 wins in 216 races. Uncle Kevin is first with 74 victories.

“I would like to think I’m getting better every year I’m out there,” he said. “I’m still making simple mistakes at times. I definitely want to improve and keep trying to figure out the best way to get around with each and every race.

“And obviously there are the people I drive for right off the bat. I’ve had great success with James Clouser Jr. so a big thank you to him. Bill Emmons and Burke Racing send him horses and generally he’s got them ready to go. He’s the main guy I drive for.

“When they trust me with their horses it’s great. I really appreciate it. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a very good year so far. It’s been a little rough as of late, I’ve had a couple of my own horses have some issues. I’ve just been on a little bit of a bad run driving, but it always flips around.”

Cummings was born in Buffalo, but his parents moved to Pennsylvania when he was a newborn. They moved back to New York when Kyle was 16 and now reside in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg. Kyle golfed in high school and earned a welding certificate from a BOCES program but said, “I really had no plans on using it.”

Kyle Cummings was lauded by the Upstate New York Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association, who named him its Rising Star for the 2021 racing season at Batavia Downs. Bill Burke photo.

Upon graduating in June 2018, Cummings had driven very few qualifiers and never drove in fairs. When Batavia’s season ended in December, he had 25 qualifying drives and got his provisional license that January.

In Kyle’s rookie year of 2019 he won 24 races and $219,226 in 395 starts. He improved in 2020 to 32 and $279,058 in 461 starts and then enjoyed a breakout year in 2021.

In his third campaign in the sulky, Cummings had 107 wins, 107 seconds and 102 thirds while earning $680,123 in 727 starts. He was lauded by the Upstate New York Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association, who named him its Rising Star for the 2021 racing season at Batavia Downs.

“That was pretty surreal,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that work hard on the backstretch. A lot of people that are young in the business. Just to be recognized a little bit, it felt great. I’m just trying to improve every year. I felt I improved a lot from year two to year three and I think it was nice everybody noticed it. I’ve been driving for some really good people, and that helped the most. You start to drive better horses and it makes my job a lot easier.”

He has continued to blossom this year, earning Horseman of the Month at Buffalo Raceway in May. That got him a free lunch, as he received a gift certificate to J.P. Fitzgerald’s Restaurant and Irish Pub, where he bought himself a Caesar chicken salad.

“I eat there often, and the Caesar chicken is my go-to,” he said. “I’m trying to stay slim; well, as slim as I can be.”

He has had some extra duties to help keep off any extra weight, as his parents went south for the winter, leaving Kyle to do the training at his mom’s stable while they’ve been gone. He is secure in the fact that if there are any issues, Tammy is a phone call away.

“It’s definitely a little more challenging,” he said. “She’s always handled more of the stuff I didn’t feel like doing. Now I’ve got to do every job, which isn’t as fun.”

Cummings was referring to the paperwork and small details of it all, such as entering horses, making sure they fit the classes, and that they have Coggins and are getting Lasix.

“It’s tedious little things I may have taken for granted when my mom was around,” he said.

Cummings has dutifully filled in for Tammy, and it has hardly impacted his driving. But while he feels he is getting his name out there, Kyle still remains respectful to those he races against.

“We have a lot of good drivers,” Cummings said. “There’s a lot of guys who’ve been here for a lot of years. They still got plenty left in the tank. We drive against Jimmy Morrill every night, he’s one of the greatest of all time. He might not be in the Hall of Fame, but he should be. My uncle Kevin is very talented, he’s been driving here for 30-plus years, maybe longer. He’s a helluva driver too.

“Then you got all the guys in between too, Drew Monti, Dave McNeight III. There’s tons of guys here that compete at a high level. I’ve just been able to be at the right place at the right time and get drives when they’re not here and not around. I kind of fell into the Clouser drives and it just kind of works out for me.”

With Cummings enjoying success in his own backyard, it’s only natural he would like to try some of the higher-profile tracks in Pennsylvania, eastern New York, New Jersey and Delaware.

“We only race three days a week, I’d go five if I could,” he said. “I’d like to dabble in getting out. But it’s tough because I’m handling everything right now in the barn, and there’s not a lot of tracks close to us. The closest one is Tioga, three hours from where I live. It’s tough to get in down there, there’s just not a lot of opportunities.”

Which leads him to consider another option — relocating somewhere to the east and taking a shot at those purses.

“I definitely consider it,” Cummings said. “I’m trying to get better here and make sure I’m ready for the jump. My whole goal is to try and get as good as I can by learning here and eventually branching out.

“It’s just tough because I’d have to leave my parents to do that. But I’m very close to deciding whether I want to make that decision or not. I really would like to head out that way. There’s more tracks, more opportunity. You can race seven days a week out there. That’s where you need to be if that’s what you want to do.”

And Cummings has known all his life that this is what he wants to do.