Tag: Ken Weingartner

A number of good things — with an emphasis on numbers — happened for Matt Kakaley in 2023. Kakaley won a career-high 561 races last year, surpassed 6,000 lifetime victories, and captured his second consecutive driving title at Mohegan Pennsylvania’s Pocono Downs. He also topped $9 million in purses for a second consecutive season (missing his career high by less than $250,000) and reached $100 million in lifetime purses, with the 35-year-old becoming at the time the third-youngest driver to hit the century mark.

After getting time to grow into his role, Primo Uomo is hitting all the right notes. Raced just twice at age 2, Primo Uomo returned last season to win 16 times — the third-best total among all 3-year-old pacers in North America — and bank $114,867 for owners Dale Lawton and Chris Lawton. His earnings ranked second to only Grand Circuit-winner Racine Bell, who makes her 2024 debut Friday at The Meadowlands, in the Lawtons’ stable.

When Michael Girouard climbs into the sulky for Friday’s (Feb. 9) first race at The Meadowlands, it will be the Massachusetts native’s first drive at the Big M in 19 years. His next will come much quicker, just several hours later.

In 2022, Austin Hanners was recognized as an up-and-coming star in Ohio. In 2023, the young driver continued his ascent. The 24-year-old Hanners set career highs with 218 wins and $3.23 million in purses last year, more than doubling his previous best totals in those categories, which were established in 2022.

Gary Messenger describes Chip Chip Conway as “one tough little horse,” and it is easy to understand why. After being sidelined five months because of emergency intestinal surgery in 2022, the then 6-year-old male trotter returned to action in mid-October of that year at Monticello Raceway and won the Open. But that was just a warmup for 2023. Last year, Chip Chip Conway posted 14 victories to finish tied for the most wins among all older trotters in North America.

Hot Mess Express has been a big part of owner Sam Bowie’s life for more than three years. On Friday, he will watch his 6-year-old female pacer compete for the final time before she embarks on the next chapter of her career as a broodmare.

Henry Graber Jr. got goosebumps watching stable star M-M’s Dream race in 2023 and hopes to enjoy that feeling again when the trotter returns to action later this year. In the meantime, having a horse like Brookview Bullet in the barn is a great way to fend off any winter blahs. In fact, the pacer provides ample reason to enjoy the season.

Adam Twelve, named after a television police drama and co-owned by driver Yannick Gingras, has been capturing plenty of wins since arriving at MGM Yonkers Raceway in November. The 4-year-old male pacer, who raced previously in Indiana, has posted six victories in eight starts at the Hilltop, with his two setbacks being second-place finishes.

Mark Herschberger began working with horses at an early age, but it’s only been in the past several years that the Illinois native — and nephew of trainer Erv Miller and driver Andy Miller — started pursuing his own everyday career in harness racing.