Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — When Mike Simons climbed into the sulky to drive his trainee Captain Keen in a conditioned pace on April 11 at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, he admits he felt some anxiousness. After all, it was the 61-year-old’s first drive since getting hurt in a race accident on Nov. 28, 2021 at Pompano Park.

“I was more excited than nervous,” said Simons, who directed Captain Keen to a fourth-place finish that day at odds of 42-1. “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. I was just so anxious to get back. I wanted to make sure I could still do it.”

In Simons’ 10th drive in his return he found the winner’s circle at Pocono, directing the Christopher Walsh-trained Rough Odds to a 1:53 victory. He added another pair of victories this past weekend (May 7-8) at Tioga Downs when he scored with the Frankie Bambrick-trained Sevenshotsobourbon and the John DeSimone Jr.-conditioned Rock On Line.

Mike Simons has 4,382 driving wins with $36.7 million in purse earnings. Fred Brown photo.

Simons, who divides his year equally between Pennsylvania and Florida, was driving Neverouttathefight in a Florida Stallion Stakes for 2-year-old filly pacers that fateful night at Pompano Park when she took a bad step and fell. Simons was dumped out of the sulky and then as the field scattered, he was run over by another horse. He suffered a broken femur in his right leg and a broken left arm.

“I was flying down to Florida every weekend to set the table for the Florida-breds, and everything was going good,” remembered Simons. “In the last leg the horse I was driving fell down and I got pitched out. I didn’t hit my head so I was conscious the whole time, but I was in a lot of pain.”

Simons underwent more than six hours of surgery the next day where titanium rods were placed in his leg and arm. Following the surgery, his doctor told him he would be sidelined for six months.

“I didn’t realize the severity of it; I figured a broken bone would heal,” said Simons. “The doctor came in a couple days later and said I’d be good to go in six months. That was quite a shock. I figured a couple months at most, and when they tell you six months, it hurts.”

Simons shortened that six months by about six weeks, and he credits his fiancee, Rebecca Segall, for his quicker-than-expected rehab time.

“Rebecca has been a great part of my rehab,” he said. “I don’t think I could have done it without her. I was also fortunate to be (in Florida) because I could do a lot of the rehab in the pool. It was bad luck but I’ve had a lot of lucky circumstances to improve my rehab.”

Simons, who has 4,382 driving wins with $36.7 million in purse earnings, was born and raised in Lexington, Ky., following the job transfer of his father from New York to the Bluegrass State. He graduated from Lafayette High School, a stone’s throw from The Red Mile, but growing up his only trips to the historic track came when he went with his father, who liked to bet the horses. His sister, Marie Sparks, still resides in Lexington.

“My dad worked for IBM and they transferred him from Binghamton to there and it’s horse country, so one thing led to another,” remembered Simons. “My dad always went to The Red Mile or Keeneland (Thoroughbred track), so I went with him. Back then everybody went to the races. It was more of a social thing.”

During that time, Simons met the operator of the track kitchen at The Red Mile, who also trained a small stable. Simons got a job in both the kitchen and the barn, cleaning equipment and cooling out horses. Wanting to work more with the horses, Simons went to work for Mike Zeller, and then later for Dennis Lacey. It was while working for Zeller that he drove his first winner, a pacing filly owned by Carter Duer, in a junior drivers’ tournament for teenagers.

“I celebrated by hosing her curbs off that night,” Simons said with a laugh.

In 1982, Simons headed east to The Meadowlands in search of a job. He found one with Hall of Famer Billy Haughton.

“I went to the Meadowlands and got through the stable gate, and I asked somebody who was hiring,” he remembered. “They told me to go to Haughton, they are always hiring. That’s where I went and I really enjoyed my time there.”

Following Haughton’s death in 1986, Simons landed at Brandywine Raceway where he opened his own stable, and when that track closed he moved to Pocono, where he captured his first driving title in 2002. More recently, he captured a pair of dash titles at Tioga Downs.

With the help of Segall, Simons trains a stable of eight at Rob Harmon’s Big Z Equine in Montague, N.J., just across the river from Pennsylvania. In addition to his racehorses, Simons also has in the barn the horse he considers the best he ever won with: All About Justice.

“He’s 18 now and was kind of a gift,” said Simons. “We bought half of him for $3,000 and he went on to make us more than $400,000.”

The U.S. Trotting Association began keeping trainer stats in 1991 and currently Simons shows 596 training victories. As a driver, Simons won more than 100 races every year from 2002-2019, with his career-best season coming in 2007 when he won 274 races and $2,875,831. He captured his 1,000th, 2,000th and 3,000th career races at Pocono, while his 4,000th win came on Oct. 21, 2018 at Pompano Park.

The night of that win, Simons was quoted as saying, “It’s really no big deal. After all, I’ve been at this a long time and to see these young kids and their talent in the bike these days, I am just fortunate to be able to compete with them.”

When asked now if 5,000 wins is in his future, Simons gave a response similar to the one he gave 3-1/2 years ago.

“I doubt (5,000 wins) would happen as I’m 61 now and these days (trainers) want to use the younger drivers as they are more aggressive,” said Simons, whose 28-year-old son, Shawn, is currently driving and training a stable of three at Monticello Raceway. “I’m still kind of old school, I drive them all like I own them. Sometimes that goes against me.”

Simons also earned the nickname “The Trot Man” due to his knack of winning more frequently with trotters.

“A lot of people say that, but I don’t know why. I think it’s because I’m patient,” said Simons. “I’d rather get one to trot around the turns and get a check than drive them off their feet trying to win.”