Simon Says I'm Staying

Simon Allard has turned a successful weekend driving venture at the Meadowlands Racetrack into a full-time gig and is now looking to relocate his family south of the border in the coming months and expand his reach to other U.S. racetracks.

“I’m going to give myself three months before the family moves,” Allard told Trot Insider from New Jersey. “But just because of all the papers and stuff like that. Right now it looks pretty good for me to be here.”

Allard says he will continue to drive full-time at the Meadowlands Racetrack for the next couple of months as he gains momentum and sorts out the paperwork. Once the meet ends, he will begin his search for a new home and bring his daughter, Amelia, and girlfriend, Sophie, across the border to join him.

“Right now, I’m kind of staying here and there. I’m sleeping a little bit everywhere. I don’t really have ‘my place’ to stay here.”

Allard, who has been returning home to his family in Waterdown, Ont. each week, says his he is looking to expand his driving schedule in the U.S. and would like to make regular appearances at other harness racing hotspots including Harrah’s Chester, Pocono Downs and Yonkers Raceway.

The Quebec native made his Meadowlands debut back in March and has already cracked the track’s top 10 list. Aside from his brother Rene, who operates a growing stable in New Jersey, Allard credits two top Meadowlands trainers for helping him build momentum and lengthen his stay south of the border.

“I really like the way it’s going,” said Allard. “Tony Alagna and Lou Pena helped me out the first couple of weeks. They gave me some help and it was nice of them, and now things seem to be rolling already.”

Allard’s seemingly spontaneous decision to pick up and leave for the Meadowlands while in the midst of a burgeoning career in Canada has actually always been something he wanted to do. In 2010, he recorded a career-best 468 wins while banking over $3.7 million in purses in his home country.

“I said to myself I’m going to do it before I’m 30 years old and as soon as I turned 29 this year I kind of panicked a little bit and I thought I’m going to give it a shot, and I took off. It was pretty funny because things were pretty good in Canada and I just decided to leave,” laughed Allard, who had just begun to drive regularly on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit at the time. “I’m like that, you know. I did a lot of moves in my life. I used to drive at Trois Rivieres, I went to Montreal and I went to Rideau Carleton and I went to Flamboro, Georgian and Woodbine. And now I’m at the Meadowlands.”

With his quick departure, Allard left his friends behind without saying a proper goodbye.

“I miss all my friends and I would just like to say hi to everyone,” he said.

Despite missing his friends, the change of scenery is something Allard was looking for to continue to learn and improve his driving abilities.

“That’s why I’m actually moving. To learn more and to get better, and at the same time I think there is more of a chance for me to be what I want to be. I want to be one of the top drivers,” said Allard, who cites Hall of Famer Mike Lachance and North America’s top money earning driver Tim Tetrick as colleagues he hopes to emulate.

“I like the way they drive [at the Meadowlands]. They really get all of the speed they can get out of a horse. They don’t go slow here. Up in Canada you can see :30 second or :31 second quarters sometimes. Here, they keep the horse going as fast as they can as long as they can. It’s like that everywhere, but here it’s even tougher to do it because there’s always somebody coming at you. So it’s really different, but I really like it. It’s a new adventure and I really like everything so far.”