Tag: Ken Weingartner

When Kyle Swift learned that he was going to receive the 2023 Rising Star Award from the Upstate New York chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Association and Batavia Downs, it was a special moment for the 18-year-old driver. Not simply for the honor and recognition, but for being emblematic of Swift coming full circle to the career he dreamed of as a child.

Michael Shults was fascinated by horses at an early age – his family had been involved in harness racing before he was born and Shults appeared in his first winner’s circle photo as an infant – but it wasn’t until recently that he embarked on his own career in the sport.

Season after season, Lit De Rose continues to bloom. The now 9-year-old female pacer enjoyed a career-best season in 2023, posting 11 wins and earning $354,985. It was her fourth consecutive campaign with six figures in purses and bettered her previous money high of $211,805 set one year earlier. Lit De Rose made her 2024 debut last week at Yonkers as she prepares for next month’s start of the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series at The Hilltop.

Several months after Karen Hauver retired from a 21-year career with the Ontario Sire Stakes program — a job that precluded her from owning a racehorse — her father suggested that she and her mother join him in ownership of a 2-year-old filly pacer that was getting ready to qualify. The filly — Karma Seelster — was a multiple stakes winner at age 2, an O’Brien Award finalist at 3, and exceeded the million-dollar mark in Canadian earnings this past July.

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.