Driver Ronnie Wrenn Jr. ended 2014 winning at a historic rate and the beginning of a new season has done little to slow him down.
No driver in harness racing history has more wins in his first four consecutive seasons of at least 1,000 starts than Wrenn’s total of 2,148 victories from 2011-14. Brett Miller is second, with 1,745 from 1999-2002.
Wrenn captured his second consecutive national driving title last year, winning 847 races. It was the highest victory total since Tony Morgan’s 961 triumphs in 2008. In the process, Wrenn also joined a small group of drivers to win at least 700 races in back-to-back years. The others are Morgan, Tim Tetrick, Dave Palone, Walter Case Jr., Jack Moiseyev, Herve Filion, and Mike Lachance.
Entering Friday, Wrenn had 174 wins this year, a total that placed him third in North America. Corey Callahan led with 181 victories, followed by Aaron Merriman with 179. Wrenn is bidding to become the first driver since Morgan to claim three consecutive national driving titles. Morgan, who has won 14,992 races in his career, accomplished the feat from 1995-97.
“Each year I just want to better myself,” Wrenn said. “Each of the last four years I’ve won more and been more successful and made more money. I’ve been at the right place at the right time and I’ve driven for a lot of good trainers. I’ve been lucky. It helps to have a little horsepower.”
On Saturday, the Ohio-based Wrenn will visit The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono for its opening night. It will be Wrenn’s first trip to Pocono, where he has 10 drives on the card. Wrenn is the two-time defending driving champion at Northfield Park, but that track is dark on Saturdays.
“My Saturdays, I really haven’t had much going on,” Wrenn said. “I was racing back home in Michigan a little bit just to take it easy and be closer to home until Scioto [Downs] starts. My plan right now is to go to Pocono on Saturdays and we’ll just see what happens.
“I love racing in Ohio and I’ve got a lot of good connections here and it’s a growing state for sure. I like racing at Northfield. I’m still planning on going to Scioto when it opens on May 2. We’ll just see what happens. I’m going to take it one day at a time, one weekend at a time, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Wrenn was pleased to get so many drives for Saturday’s Pocono card. He has two morning line favourites and several other horses with favourable odds.
“I’m very happy,” Wrenn said. “For my first time out there it looks like I should be able to do some good hopefully. I’ve never been out there. I’m excited to go out there and drive with some drivers I’ve never driven with and work with some different horses.”
The 28-year-old Wrenn didn’t begin driving on a full-time basis until 2011 because of focusing on college. He has won 2,346 races and earned $9.50 million in purses since starting his career on the fair circuit in his home state of Michigan three years earlier.
Wrenn, who won the 2013 national driving title with 714 victories, captured his second title last season thanks to a near-record December. Wrenn won 119 races in December – just three triumphs shy of Morgan’s record for a single month set in June 2008 – to overtake Merriman in the final days of the year. He finished six wins ahead of Merriman.
The title was special to Wrenn, who missed time in January 2014 because of wrist surgery and endured the loss of his father to cancer in May.
“Winning it for the first time was definitely awesome, but last year it seemed like I overcame a lot of adversity,” said Wrenn, who changed his driver colours to his father’s black and maroon. “I think it meant a little more. I think my mom appreciated it quite a bit. I think she was a little overwhelmed by it. I was happy for that.
“Aaron definitely had a great year. Just to be able to put together a little run at the end of the year and get it done was pretty cool. I just caught a lot of live drives.
“If I could get three [titles] in a row, that would be awesome. But there are guys like Aaron and some others who are always in the top five that make it really tough. Hopefully I can stay healthy and just have a good year.”
Following is the list of the top 10 drivers for total wins in the first four consecutive seasons in which they had at least 1,000 starts:
Name -- Wins -- Years -- Age at start
Ronnie Wrenn Jr. -- 2,148 -- 2011-14 -- 25
Brett Miller -- 1,745 -- 1999-2002 -- 26
Eric Carlson -- 1,719 -- 2009-12 -- 34
Gaetan Lamy -- 1,714 -- 1990-93 -- 43
Jordan Stratton -- 1,706 -- 2007-10 -- 20
Corey Callahan -- 1,679 -- 2007-10 -- 29
Marcus Miller -- 1,572 -- 2009-12 -- 20
Scott Zeron -- 1,540 -- 2008-11 -- 19
Tony Hall -- 1,522 -- 2004-07 -- 26
Matt Kakaley -- 1,480 -- 2007-10 -- 19
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.