What happens in the drivers’ room stays in the drivers’ room… for the most part. It’s a fascinating and entertaining place - the drivers’ room of a racetrack - and after many years of frequenting the ones at Mohawk and Woodbine especially, TROT thought it would be interesting to share ‘some’ of the goings-on from inside. By Dan Fisher.

I’ll never forget the first time that I walked into an Ontario Jockey Club (OJC) drivers’ room. It was in the ‘90s at Greenwood, at the time when I first had a few stalls in the backstretch there. I had been racing - somewhat successfully - a mare named Daylon Touchdown, and for some reason that I no longer recall, she hadn’t raced in a few weeks. I wanted to school her off the gate the next morning after qualifiers, so I wandered into the Greenwood Raceway drivers’ room, in the middle of a race card, to see if my driver, Paul MacDonell, would be there the next morning to handle the reins for me.

That night, just like it was this past September 13, 2025, at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the main event taking place in the room was a game of Gin - that feature has not changed a tick over the past 30+ years. Looking back to that night in the ‘90s, I can’t recall who all of the participants were, but my guy - Paul - was playing in the popular card game, as were Doug Brown, and to the surprise of nobody that knows him, Davey Wall (lol). Those three were playing for certain.

I said ‘Hi’ in Paul’s direction as I approached the table, and became a silent spectator as I waited for the right moment to interrupt the game, the chatter, and the laughter with my query.

I did know Brownie (Doug) to a degree at the time as well, so I wouldn’t say that I was super-nervous or anything, but it wasn’t exactly like I was a long-lost pal to the majority of the room either.

Eventually, Paul asked what was up, and I asked if he’d be there in the morning and could school my girl for me - she was a decent horse so I didn’t mind asking. We had collared her for $31,250 a few months earlier, and she was racing well at a higher level than that. In fairness, Paul was a busy guy with a big stable of his own at the time, and I was a trainer with a one-horse stable, so it wasn’t surprising when he replied in all honesty: ‘Why don’t you just go with her? You’ve taken horses off of the gate before and she’s got good manners. You don’t need me.’

He was 100% right. I had never even considered it before then, but it made sense.

The entire room was obviously listening to our conversation though, so next came a chirp from Brownie - who was the absolute king there at the time. Doug called out, loudly, as I started towards the door, ‘But if you want the rail you better get her out on the track quickly kid - Peewee [Barry Drury] always grabs the rail… in every schooler!’

The entire room broke out in hysterics, and as I laughed with them I quickly felt like one of the guys.

The other night at Mohawk, it crossed my mind, that at least three things haven’t changed in the OJC/WEG drivers’ room in all of these years:

1) There’s a game of Gin being played.

2) Everyone is fair game when it comes to being chirped.

3) I totally feel like one of the guys whenever I’m in there.

As I walked up the back stairs into the Mohawk drivers’ room around 5:45pm on September 13th, I was watching the Toronto Blue Jays, on my phone, trying to make another ridiculous 9th inning comeback - this time against the Baltimore Orioles. Upon entering the room I was able to shut my phone off and grab a seat beside James MacDonald - a true ball fan - as we watched the Jays, once again, pull off the improbable.

Seated at the card table to our left, playing Gin and pretending that they weren’t even watching the baseball game, were Tyler Borth, Doug McNair, trainer Blake MacIntosh and the uncle/nephew tandem of Trevor and Travis Henry. But I knew that they weren’t completely buried in the cards, as I heard the familiar, ‘Hey Fish’ a few times as well.

When asked who the biggest cardshark is these days, on a regular basis, Doug McNair admits somberly that nobody has taken over since ‘the big fella left us,’ referring to the late Jack Belliveau, who sadly passed away in April of 2022, at the young age of 64.

The number of Gin players that have frequented these games over the decades could probably never be calculated, but in my lifetime, Jack and the aforementioned Dave Wall are the two names that immediately come to mind when it comes to guessing the all-time leaders in games played… and they’d probably rank 1-2 in career [Gin] earnings from what I understand as well.

On this night it’s still a good hour until first post, so nobody is in their colours yet - until Louis-Philippe Roy walks in, removes his helmet and wipes some dirt from his face.

Unlike most of the others present, Louis owns multiple racehorses, and has just come in from warming one of them up. After giving me a nod and a wink he silently takes a seat. It’s not too long before a few verbal barbs eventually float LPR’s way - nothing too harsh - and I interject.

‘Why are you guys picking on my pal Louis? He’s the quietest guy in the room.’

Bob McClure, who has recently walked in as well, and taken a seat to my right, speaks up and informs me not to worry about Louis. ‘Louis is the King of Chirps’ retorts McClure. ‘He just seems like he’s the quietest guy in the room.’

To which Blake adds, ‘You think he’s quiet? Try being in a group chat with him.’

The room chuckles as a broad grin spreads across Louis’ obviously guilty face.

As the laid-back and light-hearted atmosphere continues to dominate the room, three of the four TVs that hang on the walls now show the Yankees-Red Sox game, including the audio, while the one TV up in the corner, where the Mohawk card is being previewed by the in-house commentators, remains on mute.

It’s not time to go to work yet. The night will consist of five hours of intense competition - both on the track and in some cases on the card table - so it seems like light-hearted is definitely the way to go for now.

The first of the out-of-town drivers eventually appears, as Tim Tetrick saunters in. Smiles and greetings work in both directions and it’s obvious, if not known by someone already, that the room is a very welcoming one.

Tetrick seems to be there fairly early, considering his first drive is in the 4th race - an elimination for the Shes A Great Lady - but when I ask if he just came from Yonkers, where the Yonkers International Trot had taken place a few hours earlier, he shakes his head ‘no’ and explains: ‘I actually drove up this time. I’m going to be on the road for about the next 2 ½ weeks and I just wanted to have my own car with me.’

Listed to drive in the 1st race at The Red Mile in Lexington the following afternoon - an 864 km drive from Mohawk - the weekend was obviously going to be a tiring one for Tim.

Yannick Gingras, a native of Canada who has lived in the U.S. for most of his adult life, is the next out-of-towner to arrive, and he’s met with a plethora of ‘Congratulations’ - it’s not lost on anyone in the room that Gingras, a few hours prior, had won the aforementioned $1 million Yonkers International, aboard the Canadian representative, Lexus Kody. Yannick briefly speaks, to those of us listening, about the victory, before going into a second tale, this one about a horse he drives and co-owns, that was the 8/5 favourite in the race that followed the International - a $200,000 Invitational Trot.

Yannick was perplexed at the outcome of that race as his own horse faded to a well-beaten 7th, off of what the driver thought was a perfect trip for him. ‘I had just won the big race, and now I thought I was sitting perfect with my own horse - going for good money - in the next. I don’t know what happened,’ he shrugged, ‘but when we got our chance to fire he just came up empty.’

It’s a reminder, even to those of us who have spent a lifetime in the business and have lived it, that the highs are so very high, but the lows - which can often come moments later - can be oh so low.

Most people who had watched the Yonkers card earlier that day would have been of the opinion that Yannick had an incredible day - which he did. But here in the drivers’ room the human element shone through, and for a moment he was just another owner - like many of us - that was disappointed when his horse didn’t fire in a big race.

Maybe, in-part, that’s the appeal of this room? It’s a place where these men - who work under such scrutiny and pressure - can let their guard down a little and just be themselves. And in that case, it’s another reason why I will only tell part of the story as to what is said in there. Generations of drivers have welcomed me into their world in that room, and I would never betray the sanctity of that.

That being said, as I sat in there last Saturday, I did come to the conclusion that there was still a way to tell the basis of the story while maintaining that trust… and as they read that last line, many of the horsemen who were in the room that night will no doubt take a deep sigh of relief - lol.

As the races get ready to start, the game of Gin being played by McNair, MacIntosh, Borth, the Henry boys and Billy Davis Jr. miraculously comes to an end at exactly the right time for those partaking in the first race to do so. The uncanny timing gives one the impression that these guys have almost done this cards-racing-parlay thing once or twice before.

As my old pal Dougie McNair is stuffing his winnings into his pocket, he’s also changing into his familiar burgundy and black colours. He’s chirped by a few of the peers he just took money from, that he’s going to be late for post parade, but he shoots back that he has the 10-hole in the 1st, and although it’s a terrible post, it gives him about 30 seconds more time to get changed. McNair grabs his helmet and whip, and as I glance at one of the TVs - that are now all tuned to horse racing - moments later, I see Doug arrive at his horse at the precise time he needed to be there… also giving one the impression that he had almost done this cards-racing-parlay thing once or twice before.

The Saturday night races are underway, the card table sits abandoned - for now - and the night starts to take on an air that’s a little more businesslike… to a degree at least.

There’s plenty of talk between reinsmen, educating one another on horses they’ve driven or are soon to drive for example. At one point I hear Billy Davis Jr. tell Jonathan Drury, in regard to an undisclosed horse: ‘No, he’s safe to drive now… he’s safe but he’s slow now too though.’

The odd trainer pops in-and-out to discuss business with their driver as well, as the laid-back atmosphere gives way to one with a lot more hustle-and-bustle.

Eventually Dexter Dunn enters the common-area of the room, and the number of loud verbal greetings immediately tells one that, like Timmy and Yannick before him, the Kiwi is more than welcomed with open arms.

Dex had just flown in - privately from New York - with Yannick, and he too had a nice win at Yonkers, taking the $200,000 trot that the Gingras horse had been favoured in, with Up Your Deo, for Ake Svanstedt. Like Yannick however, Dunn wasn’t necessarily talking about his victory as much as he was about a lower-light from the special afternoon card that had just wrapped up.

‘The horse [Up Your Deo] raced good, but did you see the one that almost killed me?’ Dex asked onlookers. And he wasn’t joking.

If one were to watch the replay of that day’s 5th race at Yonkers - the $200,000 Invitational Pace - they’d see what Dunn was talking, and not really exaggerating, about. Sitting third-over, and tipping three-wide as they came around the final turn, with Soho Firestone A, the horse suddenly veered hard to the right, towards the outside fence, and just before hitting it, pulled a complete u-turn and headed the other way.

In Dex’s words, as I watched the replay of that moment on my phone, ‘I still can’t believe that he didn’t flip me out of the bike… It was all I could do to stay upright.’

It was another situation, and a stark reminder for anyone who forgets, that although driving victories in $200,000 invitationals and flights in private planes might seem nice, the life of a catch driver isn’t always just a bowl of cherries either. Dangerous working conditions, a high-pressure job that’s based strictly on performance, and hectic travel schedules - to say the least - are all things that we non-drivers don’t always consider when lamenting about how good the drivers have it.

And speaking of danger, as the 3rd race at Mohawk steps onto the track, a horse in the post-parade catches the eye of Tim Tetrick. ‘I’m sorry but that’s a dangerous horse,’ he says without a smile as he nods in the direction of the TV. ‘He almost killed me when he was a two-year-old and he never got any safer. There was a point where I actually refused to drive him… I can’t even believe he’s still racing to be honest.’

Trevor Henry, Bob McClure and a couple of others chime-in in total agreement, all of them sharing similar stories about the same horse. Listening to some of the best drivers in North America compare notes on an issue like this is just another reminder of the risk they assume daily when they go to work.

After a few of the early races have ended and some of the stakes eliminations (with shorter fields) are on deck, the deck of cards reemerges and the game of Gin starts up again. At one point, Trevor Henry comes around the corner to see that the younger guys have started a card game up without him, but a few moments later I see him with cards in his hands anyway?

It’s not an easy process - following the on-goings of the drivers’ card game - and upon my inquiring as to how Trevor ended up in the game anyway, the hooting and hollering starts about how ‘the Henry boys’ are just like a 1 and 1A entry and they’re always stealing everyone’s money.

The remarks weren’t serious ones in the least, and all combatants are smiling and/or laughing as they chirp back-and-forth. I never did get a straight answer, come to think of it, but when card games interfere with races (or is it the other way around?) I do know that players need to partner-up so they can leave mid-game to go and drive a horse.

Honestly, just half-watching the entire production from 20 feet away, and trying to make some sense of it all while listening to the chirping and laughing, is probably more entertaining than playing in the game itself anyway.

Blake MacIntosh is now back at the card table as well, and Yannick Gingras is relaxing on the couch to my left - it’s at this point when it becomes evident as to who one of the old married couples in the room is.

One Blake-chirp leads to similar coming back from Yannick - after it’s mentioned that Tyler Jones is married to a lawyer - and eventually we start to hear some familiar cat-calls about Mitch Marner, the Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs and so on. The two, who might be deemed enemies at this point, by someone that didn’t know them, but are obviously friends to those that do, dish it to each other as well as they take it. Then, moments later, I hear them talking business as Blake is wondering if he can put Yannick down on a certain horse in the U.S. the following week.

Once the business chat is taken care of however, one of the two sends another chirp in the direction of the other, and it begins again. I eventually interrupt, saying, ‘You two would be bored as hell if you didn’t have each other to torture.’ They both erupt into laughter simultaneously as they nod their heads in full agreement.

As the stakes events continue to dominate the mid-to-late part of the card, the room actually becomes a bit quiet for a while. At one point I loudly suggest that the room is definitely quieter when [head antagonizer] Ricky Zeron isn’t present, to which Travis Henry replies, ‘Ricky is actually quiet compared to The Answer [Scott Young]. Just wait until he arrives.’

The other thing that also lends itself to a bit of a quieter room at times, like it does everywhere else in society these days, is the rampant over-use of mobile phones. I look around, a little saddened at one point, and see a half-dozen or so guys with their noses just buried in them. But then news arrives that makes the use of our phones a key tool in entertaining the room for the next chunk of the evening.

Rumour has it that Dan Noble has won three races at Scioto Downs on this night, in 1:47. All with horses trained by his wife.

The once semi-quiet room is now on fire again, as everyone scrambles to their phones, going to the USTA site, HPI or something equivalent, and look to confirm the rumour.

‘:25.4, :51.3, 1:18.3, 1:47,’ a voice calls out the fractions of Noble’s 4th race winner to everyone in the room.

‘:26, :53.2… ya, he rated that one,’ another voice shouts out, as the room erupts in laughter.

As the buzz continues to circulate over the Scioto chart lines, and as everyone who enters is now told of this hard-to-believe news, the result from the Ohio track’s 8th race rolls in. ‘He just won with Helium in 1:46.4,’ someone calls out. The room explodes once again.

But there’s more big races to come on the Mohawk card and there’s more work to focus on by the inhabitants of this drivers’ room. The buzz from the Scioto distraction eventually fades.

A little earlier in the night, Bob McClure had captured Mohawk’s first Metro Pace elimination, remaining undefeated with Beau Jangles, in 1:49.3. The 9th race is the second Metro elim, and we watch Tetrick win just as easily, in 1:49.4, with the undefeated Frantic Hanover.

As the Frantic Hanover replay shows the colt hitting the wire under a death-grip, and with Bobby to my left and Timmy to my right, I sarcastically suggest to Tetrick that his horse looked to be under a heavy urge. He glances over with a wry smile, winks and says, “Yup, he was all-out tonight boys.’

Following the aforementioned dominant performances on this night, the 2025 Metro Pace, slated for September 20th, was going to be one that racing fans across North America would be clamouring to watch, but the race-within-the-race had already started in the Mohawk drivers’ room - thanks in-part to me and my joking ways I suppose.

As the 10th race goes to the gate, all eyes are focused on the TVs, as the great Sylvia Hanover/Twin B Joe Fresh rivalry is being resumed in the final of the Milton Stakes. In this edition it would be Joe Fresh and her driver/part-owner Dexter Dunn that would come out on top, matching the Canadian Record of 1:47.4 in the process.

Dex returns to the room to many congratulations afterwards, but there isn’t much time to celebrate, as he, Yannick and James MacDonald have to catch a late-night flight to Lexington.

As he’s getting ready to head out, I ask Dex how the drivers’ room here compares to those in his native New Zealand, to which he replies, ‘It’s not the same at all really. We don’t have a room like this there. At home the drivers are expected to chip-in more when it comes to tacking them up [harnessing them] and so on. I kind of prefer the way they do it here though,’ he says with a dry grin and a chuckle.

As far as catching that flight, so they could drive at The Red Mile the following day, James has to book-off his drive in Mohawk’s 12th race to make it happen, as the pilot said he couldn’t wait. In doing so he receives a fine from the AGCO judges - even though he has no say in the departure time. It doesn’t seem like a very fair ruling - just another thing many don’t consider where drivers are concerned.

Louis Roy wasn’t in the 11th or 12th races this evening. He told me earlier that right after the 10th dash, he and fellow Quebecer Samuel Fillion were driving throughout the night to Hippodrome 3R so they could participate in the big day of racing slated for their home province on Sunday.

‘It’s an eight-hour drive,’ LPR lamented, ‘but we’ll drive tonight until we’re too tired and then finish it off in the morning.’

Jody Jamieson, meanwhile, was trying to make plans to head to Ohio - for the Little Brown Jug. I heard Blake say that he could probably get him there but he couldn’t get him home, because he was heading straight to Indiana afterwards.

Locally, Travis Henry, who has a young family at home, drove the next afternoon at Clinton, while completing the Sunday doubleheader that night at Flamboro.

And speaking of Flamboro, that’s where 71-year-old Dr. Ian Moore told me he’d be spending his Sunday night as well. Not racing, but acting as the Commission Vet. He was going to fly his plane down to Ohio on Sunday (he has Prince Hal Hanover in the Little Brown Jug) but he was now waiting until Monday morning instead, saying that Flamboro literally had nobody else. He’s volunteered to do Sunday nights there because he didn’t want the races being cancelled.

The drivers’ room: Yes, it’s a place of fun and laughter at times, but don’t get the wrong idea. The hours our busiest participants put in are long, and any added enjoyment they get during the physically and mentally demanding schedule they operate through is well deserved.

And if you think the camaraderie in that room takes away from their competitive edge, needed to battle each other on the track, you couldn’t be more wrong. I watched Trevor Henry, Billy Davis Jr. and Tyler Borth chum around in the drivers’ room all night on September 13th, then watched them go out and battle like sworn enemies in the night’s 11th race.

Borth sent the 9/5 second choice, Its Major Major A, to the front, parking Davis and race favourite Arbitrage Hanover to the quarter in :26. The second the favourite cleared, Borth came right back around, and before either could think about catching their breath, Henry bull-rushed them both with 9/2 fourth-choice Rochester Flash, taking them by the half in a cutthroat :53.3 before hitting three-quarters in 1:21.3. The three of them would survive to finish 1-2-3, with Trevor prevailing, but there was absolutely no buddy-system in effect.

As for the 12th and final race on the card, it was the one dash of the evening where The Answer - Scott Young - did indeed have a drive. He showed up approximately an hour prior, and he didn’t make a liar out of his friend Travis Henry. I never thought I’d see the day where someone’s vocals were louder, in the drivers’ room, than Ricky Z, but The Answer takes the cake. He entertained and informed us, while making us laugh, the entire time he was there, and for that I thank him. Scott was like a closer that came in for the 9th inning, and he made sure that the night ended on a high.

The Mohawk Park drivers’ room is more than just a place to shower and change. It’s truly a home-away-from-home for these men - and sometimes for racing’s future drivers as well. On Saturday night there I also watched Billy Davis’ young son, Teddy, playing catch with Tim Tetrick, and saw Dexter Dunn greet Jody Jamieson’s son Jett with a warm ‘Hey Jett’ and a smile.

It’s a room where horsemen both socialize and strategize - where they eat and maybe even nap at times. It’s where they may play some cards on a slow night, but barely have time to wash the mud out of their eyes in between races on a rainy one.

The races were now over on this night. Jody Jamieson actually thanked me for spending the evening with them. I said my goodbyes to the remaining guys, as well as to drivers’ room valet Chris Baise, and as I walked down the same steps upon which I had entered, some six hours earlier, a feeling of contentment washed across me. So much in this world has changed - some for the better and some for the worse - but the OJC/WEG drivers’ room really hasn’t.

It may have just one location now, in Campbellville, after having stints on Queen St. in Toronto (Greenwood) and Rexdale Blvd. in Etobicoke (Woodbine), but it’s not the physical room that matters, it’s the characters that continue to fill it over the years.

And I’m sure that Brownie, Paul, Wally, and all the ones that came both before and after them, appreciate that the guys are still playing Gin in that room and having lots of laughs.

On this night, as a number of them head home after a night of work, as Louis and Sam drive east into the night, and Timmy does the same heading south, as James, Dex and Yannick fly to Kentucky, and Doc Moore, Blake and Jody make plans to get to Ohio and beyond, I’m sure that they all take comfort in knowing that this iconic drivers’ room will be there for them when they return - whether it be in a few days or a few months.

I’m sure that most of them also take comfort in knowing that the walls in that room can’t talk. Because if they could…

This feature originally appeared in the October issue of TROT Magazine. Subscribe to TROT today by clicking the banner below.