Quebec native Yannick Gingras has come from his humble beginnings to emerge at the top of the North American harness racing game, but the talented reinsman seems to know that being a hockey dad — or just any sort of great dad at all, for that matter — will be one of his more influential roles in life. And it doesn’t hurt that such a strong family relationship carries on a multi-generational tradition.

By Debbie Little

Yannick Gingras may be a hero worshipper, but that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it helped make him the man he is today. “My dad was definitely my hero growing up,” he smiles.

Gingras and his sister, Nathalie, were raised on a 20-acre farm in Sorel, Quebec (roughly an hour north of Montreal) by their father Raymond and mother Monique. “I loved my childhood. I grew up on the farm and I liked it,” he says today. “I really loved it because we had all kinds of animals. We had a pond inside the track and we’d skate on the pond and we’d fish in the summer.”

He fell in love with horses early, which was easy since he could go see them any time he wanted – certainly a nice benefit. “I was able to be at the barn every morning before school because it was right there and the horses were right there.”

Even though a farm is hard work, it also provided endless possibilities for a young, impressionable boy and Gingras admits he had a tendency to stretch the truth a bit. But you might recall an old fairy tale about the boy who cried wolf...

“My dad had his owners at the house and they’d play cards in the afternoon and this guy had a brand new Jaguar,” he grins. “I walked in the house and I said, ‘the goat’s on top of the Jaguar’ and they’re like, ‘okay, okay’. A little while later I come back and say, ‘it’s on the roof now!’ So finally they’re like, okay, maybe we should go look. And they go outside and the baby goat is on top of the Jaguar and they all start screaming. And on his way down he was sliding and he took off paint and it was a mess,” he laughs. “And that’s one time I wasn’t lying!”

Whenever Gingras wasn’t in school (or telling potentially tall tales), he was travelling with his dad to racetracks. And there was never a lack of conversation, however one-sided it might have been.

“If the track was two hours away, I’d be announcing races two hours up and back. He was probably like, ‘shut the f--- up’ after a couple of hours of it. But it was non-stop. I loved it. I’d try to make up scenarios but my dad would always come out on top.”

He remembers, at eight or nine years old, travelling to Connaught Park – where but he wasn’t old enough to go into the paddock. This angered his father, who once told a security guard that his son would be better at getting out of the way of a loose horse than the guard would. But Gingras always found ways to stay entertained.

“If I was with him at Connaught Park, Danny Emond was the track announcer, and he would take me upstairs with the track announcers. If I was in Montreal, I’d be up with his owners and they’d let me bet two dollars each race and I’d walk out of there with $20 in my pocket because I’d bet $2 to show on the best horse so I could get the money. I loved those times. Those were good times for both of us.”

Gingras’ grandfather Marc lived close by and worked for Raymond, but he also ran the trotting pony races at a local track about three or four miles from the farm. “They weren’t racing for any money, but my grandfather was the one taking care of it. I was probably six or seven and I raced another kid with my own pony... Smokey his name was. He was real slow and was on the outside fence the whole way. I don’t remember the race exactly but they made fun of me for years. I don’t know if the pony was pulling up or if it was me, but I was literally on the outside fence.”

Gingras’ father set up a match race because he felt it was unsafe for his son to be on the track with four or five other ponies. Gingras may not have had the best hands in his pony debut, but the boy he was racing was 12 or 13 and with age comes experience and, hopefully, a faster pony. “We went back a couple of years later and I borrowed a pony from someone near my house and I won,” he laughs.

Gingras wanted to continue to drive in the pony races and his dad wouldn’t let him, but ever enterprising, Gingras still found a way to participate. “I was actually the track announcer from the time I was 11 to maybe about 16,” he said. “And then, when I got older, other little pony racetracks in Quebec hired me to go announce the races, because there weren’t many track announcers. I wasn’t great at it, but I wasn’t terrible, so I got to travel and announce the races. And for a while, when I was 15 or 16, I wanted to do that (as a career).”

But calling, it turns out, would not be his only calling.

He thought about being a teacher – he liked math and eventually got a degree in accounting, but his dad wanted him to come back to racing. Raymond told his son he’d buy him a horse to compete in amateur racing and even though that first race was 14 years ago, Gingras remembers it pretty well.

“[My dad] wasn’t really happy with me. The horse was a lame horse, and as much as he was better than them, he was still a lame horse. I was home free but it felt like they were coming from everywhere. After that we talked about it. That’s when he said: ‘There’s no reason to win by more than you should.’ I learned from that, that’s for sure. We make jokes about it now. It was a good time.”

But as special as those times with his dad were, Gingras knew he needed more. His big break came when his friend Jean Larouche introduced him to Daniel Dube. The two drivers hung out one night and Dube offered to let Gingras stay with him if he wanted to come and race at Yonkers Raceway in New York.

“I wanted to race on the big circuit. At some point, my dad had told me, if you want to make it big, you’ll have to go elsewhere.

“I don’t think he was against it at the time and seeing how successful I am I think he’s pretty happy I did. I’m sure he was disappointed because all the time we drove to the track together and seeing me mature as a driver I’m sure he would have like to have had me there. I know it’s why he kept the farm because he wanted me to take over the farm.”

Gingras said he tried many times to get his father to move near him, but knows picking up and leaving is not for everyone.

“He tried it twice. One time he was homesick the day he got here. And he tried another time for six or eight months, but that didn’t work. I’d like to have him here for sure but I don’t know if it will ever happen.”

Gingras, 32, currently lives in Allentown, New Jersey with his wife Vicki, son Jaiden, 6, and daughters Addison, 4, and Averi, who was just born in November.

Yannick is coming off a career year in 2011 where he steered the winners of more than $11.9 million, and he’s already well atop the driver standings at The Meadowlands in 2012 with 15 victories from just 55 drives. With 3,884 wins and over $72 million in career earnings he has truly become one of the few top drivers in the sport.

“A farm’s a lot of work and I wasn’t crazy about it and I don’t have time now to have a farm, but when I look back I wish I did buy a little spot for my kids on a farm. They have animals here, too, but it’s not the 20 acres we had.”

His kids may not be growing up on a farm but they are indeed being exposed to harness racing; he clearly remembers the first time he took his son out on the track. “He was probably two or three years old, and my wife got mad at me. But that’s what they did with me when I was a kid. They’re not around horses like I was around horses. I don’t train horses now so I’m never at the barn, but I grew up in the barn – they didn’t get to do that. My son comes to the track now and hangs out with me like I used to with my dad.”

But all the time he spends with his son at the track hasn’t convinced Gingras his son should be a fourth-generation horseman.

“No, absolutely not. People think I’m crazy because I’m successful and wonder why wouldn’t I want that. I’m not going to stop them like my dad didn’t stop me. I did whatever I wanted and they’ll get to do whatever they want. Do I hope that they’re going to be in harness racing? No. I don’t even know if I can retire from it. I don’t know what’s going to happen. So for them to go 20 years past me and take a shot at it, it’s going to be hard. The second part is that you don’t have that many people that are making a great living out of it. Obviously, I’m making a great living out of it and if I knew my son could be at the level where I am, then absolutely. But I’d much rather he’d be a doctor.”

While Gingras is busy driving an hour north on the Turnpike to race at the Meadowlands, his father is competing and doing well at Rideau Carleton. “He never got the recognition he probably deserves as a driver,” said Gingras. “He’s got new people investing some money with him and the last four or five horses that they bought have done very well. It’s nice to see him have a little bit of luck. He’s had a couple of tough years and that kind of stinks, but like I said, he’s having this one good run right here and hopefully things start rolling again.”

Gingras said what his dad has given him is more than just advice – he’s taught him by example. “My dad’s a good horseman, but he’s a worker, he doesn’t shy away from work. I don’t complain about work. I think he’s a good person and I think I’m a pretty good person. I love my kids, I’m always around them. I feel like sometimes people have kids just to have kids or to make their wife happy or whatever. I had kids because I want to have kids and I want to spend time with them. We never go anywhere without them. The whole package, that’s what I took from him.”