Leading Harness Driver to Become Jockey

Yannick Gingras, the 2014 Harness Driver of the Year and a winner of more than 6,300 races, is going to trade in his sulky for a saddle. In a stunning move, Gingras has said he intends to end his driving career following this year's Breeders Crown at Hoosier Park, which will be held on the nights of Oct. 27 and 28. He plans to begin riding Thoroughbreds around Jan. 1 and will launch his new career at Gulfstream as a 10-pound apprentice.

Gingras has already begun the preparations for the career move. Driving sparingly during the winter, he has spent much of the recent months at Palm Meadows in Florida galloping horses for trainer Jason Servis.

“I know a lot of people think Yannick is crazy for trying this, but he's going to prove a lot of people wrong,” Servis said. “He's a natural horseman, a natural lightweight, has great instincts and greats hands and has already proven he knows how to get a horse to the winner's circle.”

Gingras, 37, said the primary reason for making the shift is he feels his earning potential is a lot greater as a jockey than as a harness driver. While jockeys make 10% of a horse's earnings, drivers make only 5%. In his best year, 2014, Gingras's mounts earned $17.3 million, tops in North America, making his approximate earnings $850,000. By comparison, Javier Castellano led all jockeys in earnings in 2016 with $26.8 million, meaning he personally made about $2.6 million.

“I have great respect for people like Javier Castellano, Mike Smith, John Velazquez,” Gingras said. “They are great athletes and they deserve what they get. I may not rise to their level, but I firmly believe that I can be a top jockey and that I can earn a lot more money doing that. The system of paying drivers only 5% is ridiculous and it's something that was devised 75 years ago when the sport was much different.”

The primary reason drivers get only 5% of winnings is because up until the mid-to-late 60's trainers almost always drove their own horses. Therefore, they would get 10%, 5% for driving and 5% for training. However, the game was revolutionized by the concept of catch drivers, drivers who do not train, focus only on driving and are, for the most part, far better at that aspect of the sport than trainers. It is now rare for a trainer to drive their own horse in a race.

Gingras is not a neophyte when it comes to Thoroughbred racing. A native of Sorel, Quebec, his grandfather Phillipe Gingras was leading trainer at Blue Bonnets in Montreal three times between 1961 and 1967. He twice won the prestigious Quebec Derby, in 1961 with Poisson d'Avril (Menetrier) and in 1965 with Good Old Mort (Promised Land).

Blue Bonnets stopped racing Thoroughbreds in 1975 and converted to a harness racing only. It is no longer in existence.

“My family has deep Thoroughbred roots,” Gingras said. “If Blue Bonnets continued to race Thoroughbreds there's no doubt I would have become a jockey instead of a driver. My grandfather retired when Blue Bonnets stopped racing the Thoroughbreds, but my uncle, Gilles, moved to Woodbine and became an assistant trainer to Jean-Louis Levesque. I'd hang around with him a lot at Woodbine and I did gallop horses there briefly when I turned 16. But it was not home; I struggled with English at the time and I wanted to go back to Quebec. Loving horses, my only real option was to become a harness driver.”

Gingras, at 5 foot 5 and weighing 130 pounds, is small for a harness driver. He said he will maintain that weight until finishing his driving career and then hopes to get down to about 112. He knows as a 10-pound apprentice he probably should be lighter, but feels that is the ideal weight for him to succeed as jockey.

“I'll have no problem getting down to 112, 113,” he said. “Anything less and I think I may be too weak.”

Gingras said he has been mulling the switch for about three years. He sought the advise of Al and Michelle Crawford, prominent harness owners who also operate a small Thoroughbred stable with Servis and trainer Jorge Navarro and they advised him that Servis would be a perfect teacher for him. Servis rode briefly but had weight problems that led him to became first a valet and then a trainer.

“You know why Yannick is going to make this work?” Michelle Crawford said. “It's simple: he's a winner.”

“I was really skeptical when the Crawfords came to me and asked that I help Yannick,” Servis admitted. “Honestly, I didn't even know who he was, other than some 37-year-old guy who wanted to become a jockey. But you could see right away that he was different. Horsemanship is horsemanship. Yes, I had to teach him a few things. He had a little trouble getting used to the pace we want in the mornings with our horses because the trotters go so much slower, but he picked it up quickly. Once he gets his weight down, I don't think he's going to have any problem making this work. I'm not saying I'm going to put him up on a horse like Sunny Ridge, but I'll definitely use him. And a couple of trainers have also taken notice down here and asked me about him. They also seem impressed.”

Gingras is believed to be the first prominent harness driver to attempt to become a jockey. However, Hall of Fame jockey Manny Ycaza made the opposite move in 1977, converting to a harness driver because leg injuries forced his retirement from riding. He drove briefly at Monticello Raceway before concluding harness racing was not for him.

Gingras will be leaving harness racing on top. He is a regular driver for the sport's two top trainers, Ron Burke and Jimmy Takter, and he was leading driver by earnings in 2014 and 2015. He has 12 Breeders Crown wins and four driving titles at the Meadowlands.

“I'm ready for a new challenge in life,” he said.

And, of course, every word (except for the part about Ycaza) you just read is pure nonsense. Happy April Fools' Day.