Driver Brad Kramer won his 8,000th career race on Saturday night (April 29), as he reached the milestone with the four-year-old gelding pacer Mystical Beach in Race 9 at Northville Downs.

Kramer, who turned 60 in early February, came into the night with 7,997 career victories. He was able to post a hat trick, as he also scored earlier on the program with Hes Got Issues in Race 2 and Not So Sweet in Race 4.

"I'm proud of reaching 8,000 wins," Kramer told harnessracing.com by cell phone after the race card was completed and while making the two and a half-hour drive back to his recently-purchased home in Houghton Lake, Mich. "I actually didn't expect to win three tonight, so I told my wife she didn't have to make the trip, but anything can happen and it did."

Kramer got his start in harness racing working for Shiawassee Farm and received his first driver's license in 1980. Although he drove on the Michigan fair circuit, he did not make his first start at a pari-mutuel track until Sports Creek Raceway opened in 1986.

Kramer has gone on to a career that resulted in many driving titles at all the Michigan racetracks, including several at Northville Downs. The driver behind many Michigan champions over the years, Kramer is a past Michigan Driver of the Year and in 2016 he was elected to the Michigan Harness Horsemen's Association's Hall of Fame.

Kramer only recently returned to his home state, after having spent the winter helping trainer Casie Coleman break her two-year-olds in Florida.

"It was great again working with Casie over the winter with some really nice two-year-olds," said Kramer, "but it was time to get back to Northville and get to 8,000 as I knew I was close."

According to U.S. Trotting Association records, Kramer has now driven in 43,659 races, with purse earnings of $33,475,719. For 17 consecutive years from 1996 through 2012, Kramer had annual purse earnings of more than $1 million. He won a career high 479 races in 1999, and posted a career-best $2,187,901 in earnings in 2005.

(Harnessracing.com)