MGM Northfield Park honoured its top driver and trainer of the 2024 harness racing season on Sunday night, Jan. 5.

Aaron Merriman wrapped up another stellar season at Northfield Park with 574 winner's circle trips from 2,324 starts to collect his eighth straight driving title and 13th overall at the Home of the Flying Turns. Hunter Myers (260), Kurt Sugg (257), Justin Irvine (255) and Ronnie Wrenn Jr. (236) rounded out the top five in 2024. 

Merriman doesn’t just win at Northfield, as he tacked on 300 more victories around the country to bring his grand total to 874 for the 2024 racing season, which catapulted him to his astonishing 10th consecutive season as leading driver in North America. Merriman not only spends a lot of time winning, but his bike racks up plenty of miles as he had 4,125 starts, which marked his 11th season with more than 4,000 starts vaulting him over 85,000 total.

His total purse earnings in 2024 of $11,921,452 was a career-best and marked his seventh consecutive season surpassing $8 million excluding the abbreviated pandemic year (2020). Merriman also had highlight wins on “Super Weekend” with Clever Cody (trained by Dr. Ian Moore) in the $410,959 Scarlet Ohio Sire Stakes Championship and then a pair of $136,986 Gray Championship scores with Howaboutayankee (trained by Dean Glispie) and Mega Money (trained by Chris Beaver).

“I keep telling myself I want to slow down because it is a little tiring, but if I think about being tired, I’ll perform like I’m tired, so for now, I’m not going to cut back… I’m not chasing records, just trying to go out there and do my best to win each race,” said Merriman when asked about pulling double duty throughout the week at The Meadows and Northfield Park.

Obviously, Merriman knows you can’t win them all with as many starts as he makes each year, but he is very hard on himself.  

“I don’t like losing and I am very hard on myself, but as I have gotten older, I’ve learned to let it go. After a couple minutes, I just move on to the next race and go out and give 110 per cent.”

The 46-year-old Northfield, Ohio native and career earner of nearly $125 million began his career in 1997. With an accumulating total of 16,187 wins, he ranks third all-time in wins, 1,632 behind Tony Morgan and 4,868 wins behind Dave Palone, who is the only driver with more than 20,000 wins.

On the training side, Cory Kreiser had an exceptional season to dominate the Northfield Park standings with 197 wins. Jodi Schillaci (117), Bill Rhoades (110), Ron Burke (109) and Renae Loney (90) rounded out the top five in 2024.

For Kreiser, it was his second chart-topping season in three years at the Northeast Ohio circuit. He was dominant all around, and while having the most starts certainly can’t hurt the stats, the quality was the impressive part, nearly winning at 20 per cent this season with an in-the-money percentage of 47.

Kreiser made it three straight seasons with his starters earning more than $1 million and it was his second season topping the $2 million mark with more than 200 wins across all tracks.

“Honestly, growing up driving was everything, but I realize I’m a little overweight and not as talented as some of the others, so I do it when I’m stuck… I do enjoy driving young trotters and doing the training miles.”

Kreiser was a bit harsh on himself as he finished seventh in the UDRS category this season after chipping in 27 driving wins from 283 starts (9.5 per cent).

While the trainers receive most of the credit, there are many steps to get a horse ready week in and week out.

“It is a big achievement for me to win a second training title at such a young age," said Kreiser, who recently turned 31 years old. "It takes a village to do what we do and to accomplish this. Everyone in the barn, owners, drivers and anyone else along that way help make it possible.”

Northfield Park continues with its 2025 season with live harness racing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. First-race post time is 6 p.m. 

The Pick-5 will have a carryover of $4,867 for the next program on Tuesday, Jan. 7. The $1 wager beginning in race six will feature an estimated pool of $30,000 and sports the player-friendly 14 per cent takeout rate. There will also be a 50-cent, non-jackpot Pick-6 carryover beginning in the eighth race of $5,950 with an estimated pool of $20,000.

(With files from Northfield Park)