Time to salute our veterans
by John Berry
Veterans Day is always Nov. 11, honoring those that have served our country in the military.
Now, it’s our turn to salute our equine veterans, you know, the ones that reach retirement age on Dec. 31 at midnight. They’re the ones who have served our grand sport and fought very hard and kept harness racing alive day-after-day and night-after-night for, in this case, the past 14-15 years.
The idea for this column came via great friends Ron and Gina Cusimano, the owners of the now retiring Everyone’s Talkin, the soon-to-be 15-year-old gelded son of Donato Hanover.
Everyone’s Talkin’s career began inauspiciously enough up North of the Border — when Mohawk was Mohawk — in 2013 with the 2-year-old making four starts and earning z-e-r-o dollars and z-e-r-o cents and never getting within 15 lengths of the winners in those four races that semester.
But, in his next 360 starts since then, Everyone’s Talkin earned $474,228, grinding his way to 56 wins while taking a 1:55.1 mark at Rosecroft in late 2016.
Now $474,228 seems like a lot of money but, in our business, it’s hardly break-even, especially if any veterinary visits are needed and the rigors of racing most certainly demand that.
Everyone’s Talkin, won at 11 different venues and, throughout his career, helped 11 different trainers keep their owners from financial ruin, including their last owners, again, my great friends Ron and Gina Cusimano.
In 2025, harness racing’s veterans list had 10 15-year-olds and 107 14-year-olds on the list of valiant campaigners — maybe we’ll see a few of the 14s in amateur events in 2026 — but, the vast majority will, hopefully, find a retirement facility to enjoy their future without the stress of their past workload in the wars of racing.
Oddly enough, the leading 15-year-old money winner on the 2025 list, on which the vast majority are geldings, is a stallion, not a gelding. The New Zealand-bred Iammrbrightside N (Julius Caesar) earning $40,575 while compiling a 6-2-7 scorecard in 26 starts.
Beginning his career Down Under, Iammrbrightside N came to the States in 2017 with $269,822 on his resume and added 41 wins in the USA while adding $457,135 bringing his lifetime total to $726,957 to go along with a 1:50.3 mark at Pocono Downs as a 10-year-old.
His fastest win this year at 15 was 1:53.
Yet another stallion on this vet’s list — meaning veterans — is the son of Allamerican Native, National Debt, who had a couple of wins this year, with his lifetime total an amazing 93 visits to the winner’s circle. His record being 1:49.4 over the slick half-mile oval in Northfield, OH, in the summer of 2014. He spent the last nine seasons up North of the Border at Rideau Carleton.
Also notable was the Mach Three gelding The Real One, who, this year, raced in the Quebec Regional Horse Racing Circuit and won his only race of the season in seven starts in 2:02.3; his five-length win highlighted by a final quarter in :29.1.
With 74 career wins, he amassed $1,666,124 and took a 1:50 mark twice — the first time at Yonkers in an open handicap, last half in :53.2 — and the second one at Pocono with his final half in :53.2 way back when, or 2018 to be precise.
Yet another veteran performer with iron in his legs is the 14-year-old Always At My Place (Always A Virgin) who was 1-2 in 10 of 12 starts, good for $28,345 this year.
With seven wins this year, he now has 74 lifetime wins and can boast $1,330,230 in bounty; his mark being 1:47.2 at Pocono Downs 10 years ago.
Talking about the definition of grinding out a living, Always At My Place only earned over $200,000 in two seasons and, besides Pocono, graced the winner’s circle at Hoosier Park, The Meadowlands, Yonkers Raceway, Scioto Downs, and this season, Cumberland.
Of those on this seniors list, 15 have joined the 1:50 club.
A notable trotter is also just days away from retirement, the Crazed gelding JL Cruze.
In 25 starts this year, the gallant gelding won $46,445 on the strength of a 2-9-3 scorecard in 26 starts with 2025 mark of 1:54.2.
Just in case time has erased some of his accomplishments, and your memory, over his lifetime on the tracks, JL Cruze had earnings measuring $2,049,606 on the strength of 75 wins.
His career began very humbly as a 2-year-old in 2013 with a mark of 2:06.3 at Buffalo Raceway with his 4-year-old year in 2015 being his pinnacle season winning 16 of 21 starts, $627,456 and a tour of The Meadowlands in 1:49.4, including a win in the Hambletonian Maturity.
Besides the maiden win at Buffalo, and his sub-1:50 performance at The Big M, JL Cruze also posted victories at Batavia, Dover Downs, Dayton, Goshen, Hoosier Park, Lexington, Mohawk, Monticello, Pocono Downs, Philadelphia Park, Plainridge Racecourse, Rosecroft, Scioto Downs, Tioga Downs, Vernon Downs, Woodbine, and Yonkers.
Cash Me Out, a rugged altered son of Cash Hall, earned his final hurrah at Saratoga in 2:00.2 in March, one of 84 career wins in 342 starts while compiling bounty of $1,486,925.
His accomplishments are all the more noteworthy since the gelding never won $200,000 in a single season and his fastest winning mile was 1:53.1 at The Meadowlands back in 2016.
On the other side of the coin is Dontstandinmyway, a gelded son of Dontgetinmyway.
Taking a 1:57.1 mark at Hoosier Park in his first season of the racing wars in 2014, he spent the vast majority of his career in Canada and started in 314 races and won 40 of those — but only earned over $5,000 in one season, 2016, while amassing lifetime earnings of $40,205 — an average of $128 and four cents per start.
Yes, 13 seasons competing in war on the track, 314 starts, now getting his first appreciation of service to the sport in print.
There are 1,000 more horse tales that could fill a novel, but time and space prevent that.
There are many folk that do not realize the value of every racehorse that steps onto a track throughout North America.
But, in truth, these war horses are, literally, the lifeline of our grand sport and nothing will ever change that.
For every champion, there are 200 or 300 or 400 that aren’t that caliber, and are fighting to get to the winner’s circle, and in doing so, keep whatever owners we have left, and fans we have left, from defecting to other venues too numerous to mention here.
The retiring pacers and trotters have helped fill around 35,000 races during their collective careers, and we’re losing them to mandatory retirement, when we need them most.
Next year, it will be similar but the numbers of those horses in their newly found teenage years will shrink as the excitement of speed takes a toll on the horse’s anatomy, and on race entries, little-by-little or, as one of our BDHC players (Broken Down Horse Club) said, “nose-by-nose.”
Bless our equine veterans, whether they win or not, whether they place or not, because when they are a no-show, our sport is in big trouble.
May The Horse Be With You!
