When her family moved to America from Sweden 24 years ago, two-year-old Miriam Kraemer became captivated by harness racing.
Literally.
“I was smuggled into a tack room at the Meadowlands for a couple years,” Kraemer recalled with a laugh. “My parents were stabled at the track. I had a daytime babysitter and everything. Both my parents (Dave and Malin) were grooms; my mom drove a little bit in Sweden in amateur races and qualifiers.”
So, while her parents worked, Miriam stayed undercover since tack rooms weren’t exactly designed as kid hotels.
“We had two tack rooms,” Malin said. “One was a bedroom and one was a living room and kitchen. Whenever they did the room checks we would hide the toys.”
With the entire business engulfing her, would Kraemer have any other choice but get into the business?
Well, actually, she did, but she chose to follow her parents in the profession, and over the past five months things have been starting to pick up for Kraemer, who turns 27 this Friday. In mid-May she got her trainer’s license, and on September 21 she earned her first training win when Pat Berry drove Barefoot Bluejeans to victory at Freehold Raceway. A week later, the same combination won at the same track.
“Pat has been a huge help to me morally and has been my only driver,” Miriam said.
Kraemer owns Barefoot Bluejeans and is co-owner of Sir Richie N, who has hit the board twice for her in four starts, including a second-place finish this past Saturday at Freehold. Barefoot Bluejeans was eighth at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Sunday, but Miriam can’t complain about the six-year-old gelded pacer so far.
The horse was previously in Batavia and owned by Lee Dahn, one of the best friends of Kraemer’s boyfriend, Dave Weston.
“Lee kind of figured he needed a change of scenery,” Kraemer said. “He wasn’t doing so hot up there. We bought him, brought him down here, gave him a shot. I didn’t really think he was going to win and Pat’s like ‘You’re nuts, you can’t doubt yourself.’ He went out and won and I was really happy with him. He’s just an easy keeper. We don’t do much with him.”
She didn’t have him too long before the horse paid dividends, as he won a week after the purchase.
“He pretty much cut the mile,” Kraemer said. “I was like, ‘No shot.’ I thought he was going to be dead at the half and he just kept rolling. And then he crossed the wire and I’m standing up in the booth there at the TV and I’m like so nervous, just shaking. He crossed the wire (ahead by four and a half lengths) and I just ran to the golf cart (to go to the winner’s circle).”
It was an exhilarating sensation for Miriam after she struggled while training a previous horse.
“I kind of wanted to cry, like a happy cry,” she said. “I tried so long with Havree De Grace, a three-year-old trotter. I didn’t own her, I just trained her. Everything you did to try to help her kind of didn’t work. But she had some issues.”
A week after celebrating the first win, Kraemer got to do it again. Only this time it was with a bit more self-fulfillment.
“He won his second start in (1:) 54.2, and it was nice,” Kraemer said. “The first week my boyfriend was there. The second week it was all me, I was the only one who sat behind him all week and it was a good feeling. He called me after the race and he’s like ‘How’s it feel knowing that win was all you?’”
Weston is one of several people who have supported Kraemer on her journey, which started a continent away. While in Sweden she said, “I grew up in a barn in a playpen, I’ve been around the horses all my life.”
Miriam ‘escaped’ from the ‘Big M’ tack room when her parents moved to Burlington County, NJ and worked for Magical Acres farm, where Miriam would ride on the tractor for hours around the track.
She eventually landed in nearby Bordentown at age 13. The central New Jersey town was Kraemer’s longest-lasting residence up to that point, as she graduated from Bordentown High School after helping her mom out at the barn all through middle school and high school.
After graduation, Kraemer tried what she called “some normal jobs, but they didn’t really tickle my fancy.”
She finally hooked up with Abe Stoltzfus and worked with five New York-sired horses that took her all over the Empire State. The two went their separate ways when Stoltzfus returned to Florida. Miriam knocked around working paddocks for several trainers and also working some of those ‘normal jobs’ she wasn’t big on.
In August 2015, Kraemer was urged to start working for Nick Surick by Surick’s second trainer, Trish Coyle. That lasted until November, when she “just needed a mental break, so I left.” From there she began breaking young horses for Taylor Gower and also helped James Craparotta.
“They told me if I could get a horse, they would help me out,” Kraemer said.
By then she had met Andrew Shetler, who not only sent her Havree De Grace to work with, but firmly convinced Miriam to go for her trainer’s license.
“He had told me so many times that I was good at what I did and I put a lot of effort in,” Kraemer said. “He had a lot of faith in me. That helped having more than just my boyfriend behind me to kind of give me that push. My parents were [really] proud, too.”
A training career was not on her bucket list growing up. But between Shetler and her own desire to start making real money, things changed.
“I always had a thing for it, but I never had a real drive for it until more recently,” Kraemer said. “I guess I got tired of assisting everybody else making money and I wanted a piece of the pie for myself. And I had some good horses that kind of made me push toward it. So, it just sort of happened and grew on me.”
Her passion has steadily grown. In addition to her previous experience, she assisted top amateur driver Hannah Miller.
“I took care of her amateur horses, helped her out,” Kraemer said. “I travelled all over, shipped and paddocked.”
Hannah – who is the daughter of trainer Erv Miller – was named the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s Amateur Driver of the Year in 2015, becoming the first woman to win the honour. In discussing the award, she quickly thanked Coyle and Kraemer for all the help and hard work they provided.
“That was a really good feeling,” Miriam said. “I love her. Hannah is the greatest thing. She’s so sweet. She’s helped me out, she guided me. When I have questions, I can call her. With the trotters and everything she showed me what to do, maybe how to rig them, how to detect lameness and stuff like that; and why you would do one thing over the other. She’s been a really good friend.”
Kraemer has met several good friends who have pointed her in the right direction over the years. The result is that she is now firmly committed to a training career.
“I think so,” Kraemer said. “It’s going good for me now. I’m trying to get all the loose ends together. I don’t have a bank load of money but we’re getting there.”
She is keeping her goals within reason.
“I don’t want the pressure of being a Linda Toscano or anything like that,” Kraemer said, referring to the Hall of Fame trainer. “Right now, I’m comfortable with what I’m doing. Me as one person, I can only handle so much. I don’t have the funds to hire 10 people. I’m just giving it a shot.”
(USTA)