The harness racing world always wants to know the secret of Aaron Merriman’s legendary endurance. Is it the thrill of competition? The high of the victory? The love of money?
It’s a combination of all that, but the truest answer, it turns out, is quite simple.
“I love the people in this business,” the 41-year-old driver said. “They’re what push me. The winning is a bonus, but the people in this business are what push me.”
And boy, can they push.
After becoming the first driver to ever win 1,000 or more races for three consecutive years, Merriman already has 131 this season, putting him on pace for nearly 1,200. The single-year record, held by Tim Tetrick, is 1,189.
Asked if it was too early for such talk, Merriman laughed.
“Oh my gosh yes,” he said. “I don’t know if I can keep this pace.”
One of the secrets to his exhausting pace, is he never looks at the big picture so he is not overwhelmed by how much he has done or will do.
“I never set goals,” he said. “I know it sounds crazy, but I don’t. I try to keep everything right in front of me. I try to go race to race, card to card, day to day. When I don’t take vacations, I’ll take a couple days here and there. I don’t plan ahead. I always feel like I won’t have any drives if I take a week off. I know that sounds absurd but, hey, that’s my mentality.”
Everyone should be so absurd.
Since suffering a frightening accident in 2010 where horses trampled him on the track, Merriman has been a machine. He has had more than 4,000 starts for six consecutive years, with a high of 4,739 in 2018 when he was named Driver of the Year by the U.S Harness Writers Association.
Starting in 2017, his win totals were 1,095, 1,143 and 1,000. The Cleveland-area resident became the first driver to ever win 1,000 in consecutive seasons, and last year he needed a total of seven wins on the final day to extend that record to three straight.
His father, Lanny, a veteran Ohio trainer, put it all in perspective before the day started.
“I really didn’t know if I had a shot,” Merriman said. “I talk to my dad every day, and that morning he said ‘Hey, even if you only end up with 999, you’ll still be the only driver with 999 or more for three straight years.’”
The late trainer Barry Langley, who passed away from heart issues last March, would have felt no sympathy had that happened.
“Barry Langley was my best friend,” Merriman said, “and he would have loved it if I had landed on 999 just to bust my chops.”
Merriman started the day by winning three races at the Meadows in western Pennsylvania. He drove back to Ohio’s Northfield Park, won three more and needed one win in the final two races to make history. He got it in the day’s 14th race when he drove trainer Williams Rhoades’ Some More Prince to victory.
“It was a very surreal moment,” Merriman said. “I won with a horse at the Meadows that hadn’t won in two years that day. We had a newcomer from Billy Rhoades’ barn and the horse raced phenomenal and it really did feel good crossing the wire, I will say that.”
Merriman won 143 fewer races last year than his high-water mark of 1,143 in 2018. His $8.46 million in earnings was also down about $2.1 million; but he also raced 320 times less in 2019 so his percentage was still impressive.
That will be the plan again this year, to try to cut back but keep winning.
“I love driving horses and I love what it does for other people,” Merriman said. “I want to continue like this, but I don’t know. Last year I took a few hundred less starts and I’m going to try to do the same thing this year. Hopefully I win a higher percentage. I’m not going to Miami Valley right now on Fridays. I’ll probably go when Trace (Tetrick) goes back to Hoosier.”
Aaron Merriman, pictured in the race bike at Northfield Park.
Merriman says it’s not the track that’s wearing him down, but the four-hour round-trip commute between the tracks.
“I’ve been light at the Meadows so far this year, I’ve actually taken a couple days off,” he said. “I’m definitely getting tired of the commuting. It’s wearing to me, driving the car. I can drive a horse all day, no problem. I don’t get tired at the track. But I’m very fatigued from the commuting.”
Other than that, however, Merriman feels in great shape. He does no weight training or workouts, saying he just doesn’t have the time. Driving is his exercise, and that seems to be good enough.
“When it’s time to shut down I want to shut down,” he said. “I’m not overweight, all my blood work is good; I’m perfect that way, which is really, really surprising in my opinion just because of the time I sit in the car, and I eat what I want. I’m not a freak weight person or anything like that. I’m 5-11 and weigh 190 pounds.
“When people say this is a weight game, I say ‘What, if I weigh 40 pounds less am I going to win more?’ I don’t think so. I think Jody Jamieson is one of the best drivers I’ve ever seen. He’s unbelievable. He’s won many driving challenges without the best horses, and he’s not a small guy. If you’re comfortable, you can move the way you need to. These racing bikes, with their angles and the weight distribution, (the horses) don’t even know who’s back there.”
Merriman, who got his first win in 1998, is sixth all-time in victories in North America with 12,098 and has steered his drives to more than $81 million in purses. More than 3,200 of his wins and $27.6 million of his earnings came in the previous three seasons. To check out Merriman’s career numbers, click here.
While it seems that winning would make it easier to want to answer the bell almost every single day, Merriman does have his days he’d rather stay in bed.
He suffers migraine headaches and gets acupuncture treatment, which traces back to his 2010 accident. So that helps his physical condition.
But how does he handle the mental aspect of it?
For one thing, he won’t let goals put a limit on what he does, nor will he let a bad outing clutter his mind.
“People say ‘I want to do this,’ or ‘I want to do that,’ but all I want to do is be the best I can be every day and every race,” Merriman said. “I try to keep that mentality race to race. I don’t hold grudges, I don’t hold on to a race, I don’t do anything like that.
“It’s my nature and I actually thank my father for that. He’s about as level-headed and upbeat as a human being has ever been. He’s very consistent, he feels blessed to wake up every day. That’s the way I feel, and I try to tell others the same thing.”
Another factor is loyalty to his trainers and owners. On those days he just doesn’t feel up to it, Merriman thinks of them.
“People count on me, that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “When you’re listed, they’re preparing all week for the draw for Aaron Merriman to drive that horse. I don’t feel like I’m better than anybody else, but I guarantee they’re going to get the best drive they can get every single time. I’m not carrying anything on the track with me. I tell a lot of guys that start out, it takes a long time, where you can just sit on a bike and it’s just you, that horse and that race.”
Being able to enjoy driving is another huge aspect, but even there, Merriman has a formula. He chooses to drive for trainers that will make things enjoyable.
“I definitely try to stay away from some trainers that put a lot of pressure on you,” he said. “There are some trainers where, if it’s not a perfect drive, they’re no fun to drive for. I don’t care how good their horses are. I call them high-pressure drives. You’ve got to do everything right and even if you win sometimes it’s wrong. I one hundred per cent stay away from those. I don’t care how good a horse is and how good a trainer they are.
“I enjoy racing horses. If I’m not going to enjoy it and I feel like there’s any kind of pressure, I don’t need to drive. Your mental health is way more important.”
Then there are trainers like Bill and Renee Bercury at the Meadows, to whom Merriman has a deep attachment. They are the kind of folks that keep him going.
“Bill’s a phenomenal guy.” he said. “You couldn’t ask for better people than Bill and Renee. I feel like they’re family and they’ll tell you the same. I love them to death. They buy quality horses. They only have five or six and it’s easy to take theirs. They just buy nice horses.
“I like the Meadows, there’s a lot of nice people there. It’s kind of my daily ritual to say hi to the same people each day. I go in and I love it.”
He loves life at Northfield as well, since he happens to be the all-time winningest driver at the Ohio track. And while mostly good things happen for Merriman in his home state, he was slightly let down by his Cleveland Browns this past fall.
“I didn’t predict anything major, I predicted 9-7,” he said. “But they let me down just because of the hype. I thought it was going to be a learning curve. I could blame the coach but that’s what we asked for. You had a guy whose never been a head coach before. There’s learning curves in everything; you’re not going to come out there and make every right decision.
“He only had one year to try. I wish they would have given him a couple more years but hopefully we’re learning our lesson … again. I’m a season ticket holder, I have four club seats, nothing will ever deter me from being a Browns fan. I love Baker Mayfield and (Jarvis) Landry and (Nick) Chubb. I just love them.”
He loves his kids and parents even more, which is another reason Merriman is taking a little time off. He lives with his 16-year-old son, Kristopher, and tries to see his five-year-old daughter, Ava, in New Jersey as much as possible. Kristopher is a high school basketball player while Ava does dance and gymnastics. He keeps up with her through FaceTime, saying, “thank God for technology. Even if you can’t be there, you’re still there in some way.”
So, as the desire to be with family grows, the massive amount of starts will dwindle slightly. But Merriman’s workload will continue to rival any driver in the business.
“I’m not sure if I’ll get over 4,000 starts again,” he said. “I’m looking at the big picture with my family and I’m just trying to do things a little differently. But I’ll always drive whenever I’m on. I’m not a guy that says, ‘Well I’m not driving this one or that one.’ I’ll drive everything I’m on.”
Since he’s still grinding out that day-to-day, race-to-race attitude, Merriman is always in the moment and admits he has had no time to reflect on the incredible numbers he has amassed, except to say, “nobody is prouder of it than me and my dad.”
“I’m sixth all-time in wins and I’m 41 years old, but I feel like I’m still learning,” he added. “I feel like I’m learning every day. I think it’s going to be something when I’m really starting to shut down, I’ll probably look back at a career and at stuff no one’s ever done in this business. But it’s really hard to process right now.”
Because right now, it’s all about the people in the business for Merriman.
(USTA)