Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

On the Road with Timmy Tetrick

July 18, 2007

Tim Tetrick is sitting in the drivers’ room at Harrah’s Chester Casino and Racetrack on Sunday afternoon when a voice calls out from across the way.

“Hey, there, Lucky; did you do any good at all last night?” driver Tony Morgan jokingly asks. Tetrick grins sheepishly and replies, “A little bit. Not bad.”

Of course, Tetrick is roughly 16 hours removed from winning the Meadowlands Pace with Southwind Lynx. It was Tetrick’s second million-dollar victory of the year; he also won the Art Rooney Pace with Southwind Lynx on June 2. The Rooney made Tetrick, 25, the youngest driver ever to win a million-dollar race. The Meadowlands Pace victory expands the legend, which includes being the youngest driver to 3,000 career triumphs and a record 120 wins in June. He also is on pace to break the record for victories in a year.

Not that Tetrick has had time to reflect on the moments. He is the hardest driving man in harness racing, on and off the track.

Right now, Tetrick’s schedule sees him competing regularly at Chester, near Philadelphia, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in northeast Pennsylvania, and the Meadowlands Racetrack in northeast New Jersey. With his home in Dover, Delaware, Tetrick ends up driving his Chevrolet Silverado, with his race bike in the back, roughly 1,400 miles a week to all these locations. Plus, he drove 97 miles last week on the racetrack – one mile at a time (winning 30 races).

“I’m pretty busy,” Tetrick says, in understated fashion. “With the schedule I have, I don’t have time to mess around. It hasn’t all sunk in yet because I’ve been traveling here, traveling there. I’m tired; I’m worn down. But, I keep winning, so it keeps pushing me.”

Tetrick keeps pushing in pursuit of 1,077 – which is the number of wins Walter Case Jr. put on the board in 1998. Until last year, when Tony Morgan won 1,004 times, no one had gotten within 275 victories of Case’s record. Tetrick entered Monday with 650 triumphs this season, and is 60 wins ahead of Case’s pace in 1998. Tetrick also leads all drivers in North America in earnings, with $8.2 million, and could be the first to lead in both wins and purses since Jack Moiseyev in 1991.

On driving (his truck, not horses): My girlfriend, Ashley, drives some when she’s around. But for most part I drive it all myself. My truck gets about 15 miles per gallon; it could be a lot better. I drive it hard; if it didn’t drive it so hard it might get better mileage. If I run into a traffic jam, I try to detour it. Knock on wood, I haven’t had too much trouble with traffic. I did miss the double a couple times going to Yonkers, getting on the [George Washington] bridge and stuff. But I’ve been pretty fortunate.”

Food and beverage: I eat out a lot. I try to eat one good meal a day. I’m not much of breakfast person. I drink a lot of coffee. I’ve got a cooler in my truck so I can have some cold drinks, or whatever, because when I get in the truck, I don’t have time to stop and get something. I don’t even change my colors; I just jump in my truck after the last race at Pocono and go. I jump in with my boots on and everything. I don’t like to eat much during the day, especially with the hot weather. When I get done I try to have a good meal. I like [T.G.I.] Friday’s and Applebee’s and stuff like that. I eat a lot of chicken and salad and vegetables. I drink a lot of coffee. I love Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Starbucks has got good cappuccino, but Dunkin’ Donuts has good coffee.

Passing the time: I’m on the phone a lot. Mainly, I just listen to the radio and zone out. I’ve got a CD player and I’ve got [satellite] radio. I listen to a little bit of everything – R&B, country, rock – I like it all. I like everything from 50 Cent to Aerosmith. The satellite radio has ESPN, so I can listen to sports. I like listening to comedies; Larry the Cable Guy and stuff like that.

The effort: It’s helped me get my name out there and get live horses. I’ve been winning a lot of races, so that helps me get some big horses. I’ve been going to different tracks and winning with all kinds of horses; owners see that and trainers see that.

The future: There’s no shot I’m doing this next year; I’m going to slow down. I think Chester is going to be great; I’ll make my base around here and the Meadowlands.

On winning the Meadowlands Pace: It’s awesome just to race in it, yet alone win. It was just a great feeling. It hasn’t sunk in. I was way back there [in seventh place at the top of the stretch]. But I had a lot of go. When they go those kinds of fractions, they’re going to come back to you. If you can point your horse to a spot, and hit it right – it just worked out great. If you’d told me I’d be locked in from the eighth pole on and win, I’d never believed it. It just worked out good. The horse was good and we got lucky to get an inside lane.