Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Driver of the Month
for June 2009

Jason Bartlett

Jason Bartlett was born in Augusta, Me., and raised by his mother, Sonia, and her parents. She worked for her father, Dick Bartlett, a trainer of harness horses at a stable in nearby Windsor.

Jason Bartlett

Jason spent so much time with Dick that he calls him Dad. Their close relationship was forged in tough love. Bartlett helped at the stable and trained horses before beginning to drive at local tracks and fairs at 17. Dick Bartlett watched and taught, pointing out every mistake.

He said Jason sometimes smoldered and said, "Dad, you never compliment me when I do good."

He recalled telling Jason, "If I started bragging you up when you do good, then you’d think you’ve learned everything, and you’ll never learn everything about this business."

Dick said he just wanted his grandson to be better than average, and that was appreciated.

"He got me to where I am today," Bartlett said. "He was pretty hard, but it all worked out."
Bartlett at Yonkers

Jason Bartlett driving at Yonkers Raceway

Jason Bartlett’s horses have earned more than $13 million, 5 percent of which has gone to him. Last year, he won 461 races at Yonkers and 656 over all. Bartlett, who lives in Goshen, N.Y., placed fifth in the point standings for national driver of the year.

"What he’s accomplished, some days, I just sit there in awe," Dick Bartlett said from Maine, where he continues to train horses at 70. "A couple of weeks ago, he won seven races in one night at Yonkers, and I just said, ‘That can’t be Jason being that good.’ Being a grandfather, you’re pretty proud of him."

Bartlett attended what is now called Southern Maine Community College, where he played point guard for the basketball team and was a second-team all-American in Division II of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. He earned an industrial electricity degree in 2003, then began driving harness horses in New England.

He started racing at Yonkers in December 2007, but his career was almost derailed last year while driving Hurricane Mike on June 13 when his sulky collapsed and he fell directly into the path of AP Stonehenge.

"The horse stepped on my leg, ran me over," he said. "Then the wheel behind me hit me in the back, but that was no problem. I thought my leg was broken."

A tendon in his lower right leg had been cut. Bartlett needed stitches to repair the injury.

"He was very lucky," said Robert C. Haughton, the presiding judge at Yonkers, whose father, Billy, died of injuries sustained in a racing accident there in 1986.

Eight days after Bartlett’s spill, he was racing again.

"At first, I was a little nervous," he said. "But if you’re scared, you shouldn’t be out there. Everybody loves to do something, and this is what I love to do."

Bob Galterio, the general manager at Yonkers Raceway, said: "He’s aggressive yet safe. He seems like he can move up any horse. He gets a horse that someone else has been driving and he gets it to go quicker."

"He doesn’t like to show his emotions," his wife, Kristen, said. "Sometimes, he doesn’t think he’s deserving of it."

Linda Toscano, a trainer who often uses Bartlett to drive her horses, had this to say about the young reinsman.

"He’s at a crossroads in his career," she said. "He’ll either step up and become a world-class driver, or he’ll find a nice niche for himself someplace. I think he’s got the talent to step up."

"It came to me as a shock to be selected," Bartlett, 28, said, after being chosen to represent the United States in the World Driving Championship in the Spring of 2009. "But it’s a great honor to represent your country and compete against the best drivers in the world."