Enduring the lean times brought the good times to Michael Kwietniowski
by Matthew Lomon
A life in harness racing didn’t come pre-arranged for Michael Kwietniowski.
He didn’t have family in the game or a road map charting where a career in the business might lead. What he did have, however, was a natural connection to horses – one strong enough to not only convince him to pursue racing full-time, but endure through the lean years while greener pastures awaited.
“When I was a kid, I always liked horses,” Kwietniowski said, adding with a laugh, “I did two co-ops at school, one was at a riding farm – I wasn’t a big school guy, so I thought the co-op would get me out of school. And I was pretty happy with it.”
A student at St. Stephen Catholic Secondary School in Bowmanville, ON, during his days at the riding farm, Kwietniowski struck up a friendship with one of the staff members, known by everyone around the operation as Beagle.
“He loved going to the track and betting the races,” Kwietniowski said. “I started going with him to Kawartha [Downs] when I was about 14 and really enjoyed it.”
With his involvement in the sport steadily rising, Kwietniowski, who also shared the same school cafeteria as the children of Ontario racing royalty — drivers and brothers Doug and Gord Brown — endeavoured to immerse himself further.
“Gord’s step-son Brandon and I were buddies, and I got to hang around Gord, too,” Kwietniowski said. “I started helping a couple of people around Kawartha like Tammi Hughes and Ken Sucee as well. I’d go paddock and learn stuff like that… but I didn’t really know where it would go.”
The next stop, after high school, at least, took Kwietniowski some 1,300 miles away from Kawartha Downs.
His destination – the Ocala, FL farm of renowned horsemen Carl and Rod Allen.
After spending four years working for the father-and-son team and gaining a wealth of invaluable insights, Kwietniowski returned to Ontario eager to forge his own path.
His solo journey started with obtaining his trainer’s license at the age of 21; it continued with a 4-year-old pacer named Surprise Factor and a little help from dad.
“Surprise Factor was the first horse I raced,” Kwietniowski said. “We claimed her in 2006, my dad and I, and we had her for quite a long time, probably five or six years.
“We won some races with her. She was a cheaper mare, but I raced her in for $12,000 or $15,000. She was kind of up and down the ladder the whole time I had her.”
Kwietniowski, still green in his new role, acknowledges that he may have been slightly overzealous with the daughter of Chill Factor—Lowella Hanover.
“I probably raced her over her head because I was young, but I liked her, and I didn’t want to lose her,” he said.
Surprise Factor went on to make 229 starts (37-32-32; $164,028), the lion’s share coming for Kwietniowski, before retiring while under his wing in 2013.
The bay, though many things for her young conditioner, was not his first winner.
That distinction belongs to another now retired pacing mare, J M Clarice, who with Frederick Brethour in the race bike, prevailed by 6¾ lengths on Aug. 9, 2007, at Kawartha Downs.
The thrill of that first triumph, while fresh in Kwietniowski’s memory to this day, at the time, underscored the winding road of emotions that is a career in racing.
“I had a little bit of luck earlier on, and then things kind of went not the greatest for quite a while,” he said. “I had a couple — I owned a lot of them myself — and I was younger, and I trained a little bit for other people, but nobody really knew me.
“I just didn’t have a lot of owners behind me or anything. I had a couple of people who would give me a few here and there, but I didn’t have the greatest luck for a bit.”
In 2010 and 2011, Kwietniowski’s charges made 313 starts. From 2012 to 2022, that number stalled at 527.
Several considerable life-changing moments occurred during that 10-year span, but none were more influential than meeting his partner, Karen Laarman.
After Laarman became pregnant with their first child, Kwietniowski, as he put it, “kind of quit for a while.”
Stepping away, however, only reignited his passion for the game.
“I got a different job for three years, but I didn’t quite like it,” he said. “I was missing this, so I decided to jump back in, and it’s gone pretty well the last three years.”
Kwietniowski, after a breakout 2023 in which he compiled a 29-29-25 line for $382,449 in prizes, has entered a new stratum in 2025.
The Guelph, ON-based trainer has produced a benchmark-tying 29 victories to go along with 51 seconds and 33 wins to bank north of $652,000.
His evolution on the track has been linear with his growth off it.
“We have some fresh horses and everybody’s working hard; Karen does a lot to help us in the barn, so does her dad, Rene [trainer Rene Laarman],” Kwietniowski said. “We just work, work, work. We have two kids now, so it gives us a little motivation to keep going every day.”
The familial factor, along with an influx of talent from Ontario’s neighbor to the west, cannot be overstated.
“I have some people from Manitoba who have been sending us horses; it’s been a blessing,” he said. “It’s nice when we get fresh faces to work with. We’re going to see what we can do with them.”
Grit N Grace, a 4-year-old pacer out of Art Official mare Dragonart, has been a revelation since arriving in Kwietniowski’s barn at this time last year.
“She’s been awesome since she’s been here,” he said. “She’s been pretty simple to train the whole time. She does everything you want her to do, and the higher she gets, she steps up every time.”
The bay, bred and owned by Lorraine Rey of St. Claude, MB, has made 30 starts this season, finding the winner’s circle in 12 to reel in over $267,000.
“She’s racing about the best mares around here, even some from the [United] States on occasion and she has never really had a bad race,” Kwietniowski said. “She’s a perfect horse to work around, does everything great, and she’s been a blessing as well.”
Grit N Grace has excelled in the superstar role previously held by 2023 O’Brien Award finalist (Older Pacing Horse) Emmetts Buddy, who is currently enjoying some much-deserved downtime.
With his incoming crop, Kwietniowski’s barn is up to 14 horses – the most he’s had at one time.
Committing to more responsibility, ahead of year 20 in the business, is a testament to how far the Bowmanville kid, who found the game organically, has come.
“We’ve been going pretty steady all year,” he said. “There’s not a lot of days off in the horse business but we’ve been lucky to have good people helping us. We get our Sundays off to spend a little time together, which is nice, but it’s been a great year overall. We’ve accomplished pretty well above and beyond what we expected.”
There were times where his hard work went unnoticed, and others he spent exploring what else life had to offer, but there is no doubt Kwietniowski is exactly where he belongs.
“We’re content racing every night,” he said. “It can be a little taxing sometimes, but that’s what we signed up for.”
