Anyone involved in harness racing knows it’s a difficult business to be successful in. For a driver, it’s hard at the top and even harder on the secondary circuit. But for those who put in the time to hone their skill, there are rewards for that dedication.
Kevin Cummings is a perfect example of that.
Cummings is a lifelong resident of Hamburg, New York which is the home of Buffalo Raceway. With the exception of one year when he raced at the Meadows, his entire career has been centered in western New York.
Earlier this year he was a runaway winner of the dash title at the Buffalo meet with 171 wins (54 more than his nearest competitor) and currently finds himself in the same spot at the Batavia Downs meet with 110 wins (50 ahead of his nearest competitor). And he ranks twelfth among all North American drivers for UDR with a .359.
2014 has been a career year for Cummings. With 281 wins already in the books (a career best), he should easily surpass the 300 win plateau with two months left to race. On the money side, he has won $1.32 million to date and that is a single season best as well. And his current UDR is only .008 lower than any other year that he had 500 or more starts.
During his 26-year tenure in the business he has registered 2,917 wins and $11.7 million in winnings. But unlike a lot of drivers today, he didn’t get off to a fast start; he got better with age.
Cummings hails from a harness racing family. He, along with his brothers John Jr., Tony and Todd, all got their start working in the barn with their father, John Cummings Sr. The family lived just a couple miles from Buffalo Raceway and John Sr. had trained and driven horses there since the 1960’s.
After getting his 'P' license, Kevin Cummings got his first drive in 1989 and won his second with a pacer named Orlando Otto. He worked hard to get his foot in the driver colony door but noted it wasn’t an easy thing to do back then.
“When I started driving as a kid, you had to earn your drive. You didn’t just jump on ten or 12 a night. There were a lot of guys here who earned it already like Gaston Guindon, Ricky and Rodney LaFramboise, Pasty C. Rapone and Gerry Sarama. They were the top guys and as a 19 or 20-year-old you weren’t going to knock these guys off their drives.” Cummings said.
So to supplement his income, Cummings opened a restaurant with his brother to make sure all the bills got paid. That was a good move because of the turmoil racing in New York State was going through in the nineties, prior to the slots legislation.
The number of drives Cummings got varied by year and was as few as 13 in 1997. But things started to turn around three years later. Some of the longtime drivers were gone, providing more opportunity that Cummings took advantage of. When the slots came online and the money got better, so did the racing. And that allowed Cummings to have a breakout year in 2005 when he scored 209 wins.
Cummings' services came into such demand that he sold his interest in the restaurant to drive full time. In 2007 and 2008 he made just under $1 million in purses, a number he would easily surpass from then on. In fact the bulk ($10 million) of his $11.7 million lifetime was earned in just the last ten years.
Cummings credits his father and other top drivers for much of his success.
“My father has always been an inspiration to me and has always been there to help me get better. He taught me most of what I know about horses and critiques me to this day. I also gained a lot of knowledge working for David Miller when I was at the Meadows. I learned just from being around him and observing how he did things. He is an excellent horseman and a great guy as well.” Cummings explained.
“Plus over the years you learn a lot from watching top drivers; how they get more out of a horse without using a whip. It gives horses confidence and once you go to the whip they lose that confidence. You have to learn how each horse you sit behind likes to be driven and then steer them in a way they will respond to.”
Probably the two best horses Cummings has campaigned were Michael Scores (Held For Ransom-Suspicious Burns; 1:50.4; $668,079) and Arm And A Leg (Nobleland Sam-Kellys Hat Trick; 1:54; $320,791). He has also been behind many top New York Sire Stake performers over the years.
During his career Cummings has been primarily a catch driver, doing very little training. He helped his father train his horses when he was still in the business and then never pursued a public stable of his own.
While he has owned horses in the past, they too were few and far between. Recently he has put seven racehorses in his name. But in order to keep his full concentration on driving, he employs Kirk Desmond to train for him.
Cummings and his wife Rhonda have four daughters. Kristy, Kara, Kandice and Kali are his biggest fans and love to go watch him race. Many nights they can been seen at the fence rooting their dad on.
“Their friends enjoy coming to the races with them because they think it’s pretty cool-- they don’t know anyone else that does something like this. My oldest daughter says she wants to jog and take paddocks but I haven’t seen it yet. She spends more time with her friends than she does with the horses” Cummings said.
“I plan to keep driving for the rest of my life and right here in western New York. This is home and this is my career. I don’t think I can do much better driving here so I hope to stay at the level I’m at. So other than my own horses doing better, I think this is as good as it gets.”
(Buffalo)