"Mother Nature — You can't beat her, so you've got to work with her."

If anybody knows that for a fact, it's Mark Horner, track superintendent at Woodbine Mohawk Park. And while snow and fluctuating temperatures have made for a challenging winter for Horner, he and his crew — a dozen strong, split between morning and evening platoons — have kept the seven-furlong racing strip at Mohawk in tip-top shape for Canada's fastest Standardbreds.

"I can only speak to myself and the track I've kept at home for all my life: You get what you put in," Horner said in a recent COSA TV feature. "And I know Western Fair, Flamboro and for sure Mohawk ... the hours that the track crew puts in — this time of year and even in the summertime — is unbelievable, and the job that they do to get it to where it has to be to race is monumental."

Horner, who won nearly 900 races as a trainer before assuming the role of Manager of Racing Surfaces at Mohawk last July, draws upon his decades of racing experience and rapport with his fellow horsepeople to ensure that the track is safe, consistent and friendly to the equine competitors who train and race over it.

"For horsepeople, as long as it's good footing, consistent throughout and safe for the horse, that's our main goal in the end," Horner continued. "I talk to the drivers. They've been all very receptive to me being here. The trainers appreciate what I've done so far ... and day to day, they know what to expect when they come here. To be a horseperson in the role of keeping the track, I think I have the trust of the horsepeople. And we do it for them."

The entire COSA TV feature appears below.