There’s a reason Trevor Henry is the leading harness driver in Canada by more than 100 wins over the next closest driver. He almost never misses a day driving at Ontario’s smaller tracks.
“You go every day, pretty much,” Henry said. “You get used to it, but you sure appreciate when you get a day off.”
Henry isn’t just leading Canada in wins, he’s the leading driver at four different tracks — Grand River, Clinton, Western Fair and Georgian Downs — sits second and third in the standings at two others and is third in the driver standings on the Ontario Sires Stakes circuit.
He is particularly dominant at Grand River Raceway where he has double the number of wins (75) than second-ranked driver Scott Coulter (37). Henry’s $400,000 in Grand River earnings is almost $100,000 more than the next closest driver, Jody Jamieson.
“[At Grand River] the front-end speed holds up pretty good. I like being close to the front and it seems to hold up well there,” Henry said.
It is a bonus that Grand River Raceway is just 20 minutes from Henry’s house in Arthur, Ont.
“It’s awesome when they race there. I wish they raced there year-round,” Henry said.
Henry is up at dawn seven days a week to help train the five horses he owns with his wife. He doesn’t hit the bed most nights until midnight.
The 43-year-old said he’s had success on smaller tracks because he’s been driving on them most of his adult life.
“Experience has a lot to do with it. I’ve been doing it a long time. It helps,” he said. “Guys see you do good, so they put you down to drive their horses. Horses are a big part of it.”
Though Henry has long been the king of Ontario’s smaller tracks — putting some 80,000 kilometers on his truck every year in the process — he said he might take a shot at driving regularly at the top Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit in the fall.
“I might give it a try and just do that and take a little break.”
For the time being, though, Henry will continue to plug away every night of the week at any track he can.
“You can drive every night of the week. Before, I used to have, maybe, a couple days off a week...Right now it’s so busy. They put the stakes schedule closer together. It’s not as spread out. There’s stakes pretty well every other night of the week somewhere. So, you’ve got to go to them.”
To hear the conversation with Trevor Henry — including what horse changed his life and what is on his bucket list — check out Grand River Raceway's weekly podcast, the Harness Racing Report, produced for Grand River Raceway by award-winning journalist Dave Briggs, by clicking the orange play button below.
(Grand River Raceway)