Last Saturday (August 6), mere hours before 27-year-old Oakville, Ont. native Scott Zeron drove Marion Marauder to an emotional Hambletonian victory for Ontario’s Wellwood and Keeling families, the driver was standing outside the paddock at the Meadowlands Racetrack thanking the horse that brought him here and changed his life.

“Without a doubt it’s Michaels Power,” he said referring to the 2012 Little Brown Jug champ trained by Casie Coleman. “There are a lot of horses that got me to where I got to drive a horse like him, but he was the game-changer. He got me global exposure.”

Zeron, once a top driver on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit, made the move to the United States in 2013 and Michaels Power was instrumental in that move to the Meadowlands / Yonkers circuit.

“He helped me with the transition in the move to the States. Everybody remembered me from winning the Little Brown Jug… Not a lot of people watch Mohawk and Woodbine from down here. It’s shocking. People really only knew me down here from winning the Little Brown Jug. If I didn’t win that, I’m sure I might not have been known to anybody. You need that exposure and he is the one that gave me it.”

Michaels Power, owned by Jeff and Michael Snyder, even taught young Zeron a few lessons on the track.

“When you have a horse that does what he did on a racetrack, it’s always one that helps teach you. He taught me a lot (of) things. He was so easy to drive that he made the experience great all year,” Zeron said.

He said the horse even helped prepare him for his first Hambletonian.

“I loved the fact that it was my first Jug drive. I was kind of ignorant to the significance of it all, which was great because I didn’t have a whole lot of pressure. I didn’t feel the nerves or anything like that. I was just going out there to drive a race. It was kind of like when I won the Gold Cup and Saucer. I didn’t know how big of a race it was until after the race. That’s sort of like the Hambo. This is my first one. I don’t know the significance, yet, but I’m hoping if I win it, then I will realize it.”

(Courtesy: Ontario Racing)