Martin Luther King Remembrance Race featured on Saturday at Big M
by Debbie Little
Winters at The Meadowlands are a time when young driving stars shine and some competitors in Saturday night’s (Jan. 17) Martin Luther King Remembrance Race are hoping to see that trend continue.
Half of the drivers in the field paying tribute to the Civil Rights icon are 25 years old or younger, and a few are making their Big M debuts.
Zyler Maxwell, 19, who doesn’t turn 20 until the end of May, is the youngest in the group, with OD Johnson, also 19, Jalen Gray, 21, William Carter, 21, and Adarryl Gates, 25.
Carter is the veteran in the bunch, having won the first MLK race he ever competed in at the age of 18 in 2023, which was also his first drive at The Meadowlands. He has competed in this event every year since. Gates, Gray, and Johnson are all making their Meadowlands debuts on Saturday, so Maxwell has a slight leg up on them at least, since he did compete in a race at the mile oval last year.
In his Big M debut at the end of August of 2025, Maxwell drove the Peter Kleinhans-owned Gazoo to a sixth-place finish.
“It was fun,” Maxwell said of his first Meadowlands drive. “I really enjoyed it out there. I’m excited to come back. I knew after the race was over, I wanted to drive again up there. It was a really nice place; I liked the track, I liked the paddock, I liked the people there. I think [driving in the MLK Remembrance Race is] a very, very good opportunity to come back up there.”
Maxwell, a native of Macon, MS, where he currently resides, met Kleinhans at Oak Grove where Kleinhans is the track announcer as well as being an amateur driver.
“I just thought he looked great in the bike the first couple times I saw him drive,” Kleinhans said of Maxwell. “You could tell he put a lot of thought into the drives and he obviously loves it. I drove against him a few times in amateur races. My hope was to sponsor him at The Meadowlands over this winter to drive all my horses, especially the amateur horses, but he lost his amateur status, so it didn’t make sense.
“But I still wanted to give him a chance to shine. He gave Gazoo an absolutely perfect drive; horse just came up a little short.
“I already told him he’s driving everything for me at Oak Grove next meet aside from the amateurs I’m driving.”
Kleinhans, 60, who has been in the business over 40 years, got his start calling races as an 18-year-old, and said he can see some of his younger self in Maxwell.
“The first thing that struck me was how he had his whip color coded with blue and red in his colors, which is exactly what I did with the first whip I ever had,” Kleinhans said. “I can just tell he lives for it.
“[He’s the] first person in all my years of racing that I’ve been willing to stick my neck out for like this. Not that it’s really costing me anything. But I really want to see him succeed.”
Although Maxwell has always liked horses, his initial involvement as a child centered on riding and roping until someone introduced him to harness racing around the age of 10.
“After [seeing horses jogging for the first time] I started watching races on YouTube,” Maxwell said. “And by that time, Lather Up was racing, and Lather Up was my favorite horse, him and Wiggle It Jiggleit. I liked those two and Always B Miki.
“I liked watching Montrell Teague a lot and [Tim] Tetrick. Tetrick is one of my favorites. Watching those guys drive, I was kind of like, that’s what I want to do.”
In 2022, his first year in a bike, Maxwell had 29 starts with four wins, followed up the next year by 19 wins in 49 starts. In 2024, Maxwell drove a lot on the Kentucky circuit with a record of 21-20-33 in 156 attempts and $126,853 in earnings. His starts nearly doubled to 300 in 2025 with a tally of 30-30-43 with $296,049 banked.
“2025 was my first year going to The Meadows in Pennsylvania, where I started working for [trainer] Rob Laffoon,” Maxwell said.
In addition to The Meadows, Maxwell drove horses for Laffoon at Northfield, Oak Grove, The Red Mile and Cumberland Run, where the most opportunities came his way.
“I had a pretty good year at Cumberland last year… but I could handle more drives, I think,” Maxwell said. “I would probably want to drive during the winter this year to keep driving and get more opportunities and see different tracks. So, I’m thinking about going back to Pennsylvania with Rob this year, if he allowed me to just go back and forth from [The Meadows] to Northfield.”
Maxwell, who drives Abel De Vie (post 6, 5-1 morning line third choice) in Saturday’s fourth race, is driving 15 hours each way from Mississippi with Gates, Gray, and Johnson, for that single drive at The Meadowlands because competing at the Mecca of harness racing is special, but doing so in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King increases that exponentially.
“It means a lot to me since going to school and learning about Dr. King,” Maxwell said. “Knowing how much he went through to help with our freedom, it means a lot. So, I hope to be able to do good in this race, and, hopefully, it could give me more opportunities.”
