The fact that harness racing driver Ron Pierce reached 8,000 lifetime wins earlier this month might not surprise fans

. After all, Pierce has already produced a career that earned him enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.

But the fact Pierce reached the milestone in the midst of what could be called a career year may cause astonishment.

Entering Monday, Pierce had won 444 races this year. The total is just 12 victories shy of his career best, 456, set in 2006. He had earned $12.84 million, which ranked No. 3 among all drivers in North America. He is unlikely to reach his career high, $14.4 million, established in 2006, but could finish with the second-richest year of his career.

Pierce surpassed $10 million in seasonal earnings for the eighth consecutive year, extending a record he shares with Brian Sears. He has earned $181 million in his career, third most in history behind only John Campbell ($277 million) and Mike Lachance ($185 million).

Furthermore, the 55-year-old Pierce won two million-dollar races this year - the Metro Pace with Simply Business and Meadowlands Pace with Roll With Joe - and six other events worth at least $500,000. His victories in those eight big-money races came with six different horses.

“I just fell into a lot of these drives; I was very lucky,” Pierce said. “If you go back to May, I only had one top stakes horse (Cedar Dove) lined up. I didn’t have others until late May or early June and then the phone started ringing and the next thing you know I have all these top colts and fillies to race. I have to thank the trainers and owners; if you look at the trainers I drive for, they always seem to come through for me with these good ones.”

In addition to the Metro and Meadowlands Pace, Pierce won the $848,640 Canadian Pacing Derby and $500,000 Ben Franklin Pace with We Will See, the $600,000 Breeders Crown for two-year-old filly trotters with Check Me Out, the $500,000 Breeders Crown for three-year-old filly trotters with Cedar Dove, the $500,000 Adios with Alsace Hanover and the $500,000 Battle of the Brandywine with Roll With Joe.

Pierce also won the Kentucky Filly Futurity in consecutive heats with Cedar Dove, trained by Noel Daley.

“I was looking forward to Cedar Dove coming back,” Pierce said about the filly, who won seven of 17 starts and $543,316 this season. “She showed a lot of promise as a two-year-old, it just took her a little while to get on the right track at three.”

Among Pierce’s most memorable moments was winning the Metro at odds of 20-1 from post nine with Simply Business, trained by Jimmy Takter.

“Not many people thought we had a shot, except me and Jimmy,” Pierce said. “We both knew what we had there. We had a green colt that was real lazy, but with a ton of ability and extremely fast. We just had to get him up on his toes and peaking at the right time, and it worked out just right.”

Another favourite moment came in winning the Meadowlands Pace, at odds of 5-1 from post eight, with Roll With Joe, trained by Ed Hart.

“Winning the Meadowlands Pace for Eddie Hart was a thrill,” Pierce said. “Eddie is such a great guy and he puts so much effort into his stable.”

Pierce won his first driving title in 1985 at Los Alamitos in California and began his rise to prominence later in the decade after moving to New Jersey.

He has won 25 Breeders Crown races and 19 Triple Crown events, counting both pacing and trotting, in his career. He won the Pacing Triple Crown with Blissfull Hall in 1999 and he was the regular driver of 2004 Horse of the Year Rainbow Blue and 2007 Horse of the Year Donato Hanover.

Among his career wins are four Little Brown Jug victories, four Meadowlands Pace triumphs and three Hambletonian trophies.

“I just try to focus and be as best prepared as I can,” Pierce said. “I just try to take things as they come; I make moves on impulse. I think things work out better that way for me. I don’t have a game plan that I have to stick to. If things aren’t going my way, I can adjust from there.

“If I mess up and make a bad move, I might go home disappointed with myself, but I try not to carry that around with me. You learn from your mistakes and move forward.”

Pierce’s 8,013 wins in his career rank No. 20 in harness racing history. He was the sport’s Driver of the Year in 2004, as voted upon by the U.S. Harness Writers Association.

“Getting to 8,000, it means I got beat about 50,000 times,” Pierce said with a laugh. “To win 8,000 races is beyond my wildest dreams. It’s a lot of work. I never thought I would win 8,000 races when I started driving. I was just hoping to be good enough to make a living doing it.”

This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.