With the 2026 Indiana Sire Stakes season set to commence at Hoosier Park on Monday, May 25, driver Atlee Bender reflected on his strong finishes from last year’s Super Finals. However, Bender’s racing career has been filled with ups and downs, since his first professional start in 2016. 

Becoming a bigger name in the industry, Bender racked up more than 1,000 seasonal starts for the first time in his career in 2022 leading up to an impressive 2023 season and start to 2024. Racing at Oak Grove to start the 2024 season, Bender was at the top of his game, rattling off 43 wins out the gate. However, after his racing accident at Oak Grove, Bender’s strong start had to be put on hold.

“It was hard right at first,” said Bender. “In my mind, I was thinking, ‘Well, I'll be back three, four weeks, ready to go, and then I realized the severity of it. The doctors were saying nine months till you're ready to go, and when they said that, it just sunk in and I realized the season was over.”

Bender suffered a season-ending injury forcing him to the sidelines for the rest of the year. Despite hearing the news that his season was over, Bender was able to spend more time in a different life-changing event.

“[The injury] was a blessing in disguise, because we had just had our first kid,” said Bender. “I'll always remember that summer, because I got to spend a lot of time with her, whereas, if I'd been going full tilt, racing, I would've missed a lot of those early stages of her life. It made sitting at home with the arm in a sling a lot easier.”

On the road to recovery, Bender took advantage of the warmer weather by working out in Florida. When he got back in the sulky for slow miles after injury, Bender remembered getting the itch to come back and race at full speed.

“I told myself, ‘I don't care what horse I'm driving, whose it is, that first race, I'm going to be right on the car and leave and to prove to myself that I wasn't having second thoughts or nervous or scared,” said Bender.

Returning to Hoosier Park on March 12, 2025, Bender raced in his first start since his injury and wasted little time finding the winner’s circle with trotting mare Greatlakes for trainer Joe Yoder.

“[The first race] worked out great,” said Bender. “Left the gate and won the race, and that was pretty special… It was just a good feeling to know that it felt comfortable. I wasn't nervous. It just felt normal.” 

Kick-starting a career year, Bender went on to accumulate $5 million in purse earnings with 235 first-place finishes, proving to himself and supporters his talents in the bike. In one of Hoosier Park’s largest stakes nights, Bender raced for four second-place finishes on Super Finals Night for $347,224 in purse earnings over those four races.

“That was a great night,” said Bender. “I was disappointed in the moment of not winning a race… [However], [when] the next day, you realize you had four second [place finishes] on Super Finals Night, it completes the year.”

Three of Bender’s second-place finishes were for trainer Erv Miller, a relationship that has strengthened since the start of Bender’s career. Racing ponies since he was 14, Bender looked for a change in pace after high school.

“I went to Florida, I worked for Erv that winter and went to Pennsylvania the next three summers,” explained Bender. “So, I was out there for a while, and he wanted to start a stable here in Indiana… We came back out here close to home and family. And I always wanted to be back here and race at Hoosier Park.”

Bender is thankful for the guidance Miller provided him and gives the trainer credit for helping him get to where he is today.

“I wouldn't have the career or name in the business if it wasn't for him,” said Bender. “He stuck his neck out and let me drive some good horses… He's definitely the reason for where I'm at and why I'm here.”

Starting races at Hoosier Park with Miller, Bender found his footing back in his stomping grounds with the opportunity to compete in front of family. Bender continued to impress by hitting the $1 million earnings mark in a season in 2021 improving in starts, wins and money won.

Racing in front of family soon transitioned to racing against one of them. After his injury in 2024, Bender’s brother-in-law and son of Miller, Marcus returned to the Midwest to compete at Hoosier Park full-time.

“If I would've never got hurt, maybe he wouldn't have had the opportunity to come back out, and got the itch to come back,” said Bender. “I just think everything happens for a reason, and that's one of the reasons.”

Growing their relationship through their competitive nature, Bender said that he looks forward to any opportunity to race against his brother-in-law.

“I love racing against him and with him,” said Bender. “There's nobody I want to beat more than him on the track every night…. Once you go behind the gate, you look over, you see him beside you or a couple horses away, you know, it's all business.”

Today, Bender continues to race against his brother-in-law and other decorated drivers at Hoosier Park while balancing his life outside of racing.

“I think about horses all the time,” said Bender. “It's our job and everything, but I also try to have other things to keep my mind busy while you're so busy during the summer. I love golfing and cooking… If I couldn't make a living racing horses, I would try to cook or do something like that… I think you got to have the happy medium.”

Utilizing this mindset in the 2026 season, Bender is on the cusp of 1,000 career wins. Taking momentum from last year, Bender is excited for the opportunity to grow in an early start to this season.

“I just want to build off of last year and keep getting more drives, and [help] the trainers that use me a lot to keep making them money and having a good year…,” said Bender. “We started, in February, a little sooner than before; hopefully, the long season will just carry over and we can build off of it… Once the stakes horses come around and most of the stables are all here, it should be a fun summer, and a fun year.”

Stakes races at Hoosier begin on Memorial Day, May 25 with the first round of Indiana Sire Stakes with post time set for 5:30 p.m. For Bender, he has been continuing his relationship with Miller by working in his barn, allowing him the opportunity to work closely with promising young horses.

“[It’s exciting] seeing the horses develop and mature from a baby to a two-year-old season or two-year-old to three-year-old season,” said Bender. “We don't have very many [horses] four and up in the barn, so it's just mainly two and three-year-olds.”

One of those horses is Bam Bam, a Tellitlikeitis-Podges Lady gelding who is off to one of the hottest starts at Hoosier. Bam Bam has won five of his first six lifetime starts, his most recent in the $34,247 Hal Dale Series final. Bam Bam swept the Hal Dale Series, winning all three legs, and is looking to extend his win streak in race 15 out of post six on Indiana Sire Stakes Monday night.

“He's fun. He's still growing. He's not finished growing mentally. He's still green, but he's a good horse,” said Bender. “I don't know where his bottom is. We haven't figured that out yet, but he's got some tough competition.”

Additionally, the Erv Miller Stable welcomed back trotting gelding Dan D Man Can, a Super Final runner-up last year at two, to the track for his first start of the season, winning with time to spare on May 14.

“Last year, he was really immature, and just making breaks, and wasn't rigged quite right,” said Bender. “We kept switching his equipment and wasn't the soundest either. He'd come back in the super. He was really sound and I think he's going to be really strong this year. He just really grew up [to be] mentally strong and physically he's strong.”

Dan D Man Can has accumulated $202,505 in lifetime earnings with a mark of 1:55. The Dover Dan-Caramela Hanover gelding is owned by Red Barn Stable, Douglas Overhiser and Lava Java Stable. Dan D Man Can will compete in the Indiana Sire Stakes on Monday in race 10, starting in post three.

Another Super Final runner-up last year, filly trotter Help Cum Laude will make her 2026 season's debut out of the Miller barn in race nine from post four. Help Cum Laude racked up three wins out of seven starts last season and earned $176,811. This year, the three-year-old filly participated in a a pair of qualifiers, winning the most recent outing and finishing second in the other. For Bender, he felt that he could have done more on his part to help with her success in those qualifiers.

“She had a bad qualifier because I drove her bad,” said Bender. “She was a little aggressive, but we got her some equipment changes and she'll be better. She's a pretty talented filly.”

Additionally, Bender gave praise to last year's two-year-old pacing filly Super Final runner-up Somemore Blue out of the Miller barn. Filling in for Somemore Blue’s primary driver Marcus Miller, Bender guided the sophomore miss to a dominate return on May 16, winning a race for Indiana Sire Stakes eligibles by eight lengths in 1:51.2.

Bender said he sees Somemore Blue with a lot of talent heading into stakes season. Set to be driven by Marcus Miller, Somemore Blue enters the stakes season with $395,922 in lifetime earnings and will compete in Monday’s opening race out of post two.

“It's exciting to get the stakes season started, because the first two or three stakes legs, everybody's putting everybody's horse in, and some belong, some don't,” said Bender. “And then after mid-summer, the best are just entering in the stakes races… the [horses] that are good and can withstand the whole summer. 

"Obviously, we're going for great money and that makes it a little more appealing," he added. "It's fun to be on a stakes leg with a good horse.”

(With files from Hoosier Park; photo of Atlee Bender driving Dan D Man Can)