You can bet Trevor Henry will look back on 2012 as a year of bittersweet success – that is, if the 41-year-old harness racing driver ever slows down long enough to take stock of his incredible achievements last year.
On New Year’s Eve, as the clock approached midnight on the track of the London’s Western Fair Raceway, Henry was declared Canada’s top harness driver of the 2012 racing season.
With 533 wins in 2,133 races, driving horses that earned $3.4 million in purse winnings, it was the most career earnings he has made in a single year.
Henry’s win total ranked him seventh place for all of North America, while for total purse wins, he came in at tenth in Canada.
Nonchalant in any situation and a man of few words, on Dec. 31 Henry told the audience of fans and fellow horsemen, “I drove a lot of horses. It’s probably just a matter of hard work and always showing up.”
That is an understatement, but true to the quiet, humble nature for which Henry is known. His calm resolve allows him to manage a schedule that requires long hours, and even longer commutes before and after a race.
“It’s crazy the hours you put in,” said Henry. “It’s tiring more than anything. Sometimes I do as much as 15 to 18 hours a day.”
Together with his wife, Shannon Henry, a standardbred trainer with a solid record of wins in her own right, the two share the care of 10 horses, part of the Trevor Henry Racing Stable run out of John Chechin’s farm in Arthur.
Throughout the winter months, Henry races four times a week in London, hitting the road after morning barn chores. In the summer, the driver races six days a week on average, including Sunday in Clinton. When the races take him farther away to places like Peterborough or Ottawa, a same-day turnaround makes for a very long day.
Asking Henry why he does it is like wondering why a horse wants to run.
“It’s the thrill of winning big races,” he said, of the reason he keeps up the grind. “And that you are your own boss … you don’t have to punch a clock and you sort out your own hours.”
The father of two admits his career means he misses a lot on the home front and it has been a sacrifice. Yet he credits the support of his family for making it all worthwhile.
“You’ve got to have that. If they didn’t support me, I couldn’t do this,” he said. “You’re gone all the time and you miss a lot with your kids, but you have to do what you do to make a living.”
Henry is clear that Shannon, his wife of 15 years, deserves much of the credit.
“You have to have someone who supports you. Shannon understands the business,” he said, acknowledging she trains a stable of horses that made 75 starts in 2012, earning $225,000.
Their shared commitment to the industry and each other makes for a solid foundation of teamwork.
“We just have the understanding that I run the show here and he runs the business,” Shannon explained of raising the family, adding she coordinates his driving schedule and calls in his changes while he’s on the road. “It just seems to work for us. It’s a business all around.”
She laughs, saying, “This is what we do; people think we’re crazy.”
Neither of the couple’s children, Tessa, 11, and Ty, 16, aspire to follow their father’s driving tracks, but they do attend many races and have been around the barn all their lives.
“To them, this is normal,” Shannon said, noting that once Stake season begins, her husband will be full-on racing. “They know he does what he does for them.”
During the 2012 season, Henry’s family cheered him on whenever possible, either track side or at home.
“It turned into a big event. They watched him every night on television,” Shannon said, explaining how the children kept score of their father’s wins.
To keep the family connected, they take a mandatory two-week vacation to their 10-acre property in Tennessee, where Shannon says the rules are no talking about racetracks, the business or anything related to it.
Family history rooted Henry in the harness racing industry. His father Ross Henry was one of the province’s most successful conditioners of young racehorses, and the patriarch of Henry Stables, bringing his two sons into the fold until his retirement in 2006.
In his career, Ross trained 533 winners to earn more than $7 million in purses in nearly 4,000 races. But his father’s legacy of training wasn’t Henry’s calling. At age 19, the son got in the driver’s seat.
“Training horses is a long road to get them there,” Henry said. “With driving, you get more satisfaction. You get more of a thrill. I’ll drive 12 different horses every day.”
During Hanover Raceway’s Heritage Day on Sept. 15, Henry won a race named in honour of his father, and tied the record for most wins in a night with seven. The title is shared with fellow Arthur horseman Bruce Richardson.
“Hanover is probably my favorite track,” said Henry. “It’s where I started. It’s where I went to the track most often, early on. It’s small … no pressure.”
It’s a nice reprieve in an industry where pressure is almost constant and the ability to manage it is crucial. People in the industry attribute Henry’s continued success to his composed and quiet confidence.
Dr. Ted Clarke, general manager of the Grand River Raceway in Elora, refers to Henry as being “calm, cool and collected.
“He has learned to be very focused,” Clarke said of Henry’s driving skill. “He has an almost instinctive knowledge.”
Greg Blanchard, assistant general manager and track announcer for Western Fair Raceway, agrees.
“A lot of it is instinct. Some guys are born with that God-given ability, and he’s one of them,” Blanchard said. “Through his hands he can communicate with the horse, and he’s one of those guys who can get more out of a horse than most.”
Henry knows trainers can only tell a driver so much about what a horse needs, so the rest is up to the team of horse and driver on the track, in the heat of a race.
“You’re working as one,” Henry explains.
“As a driver, you try to do what the horse likes, what trip the horse takes. All horses are different. That’s one of the things you have to think about … getting them into position to win.”
For Henry, the mark of a good horse is simple: “Smart, athletic and fast, that’s the biggest thing. If a horse is crazy fast but has no brains, it’s not good enough.”
He adds, “Horses are my business. They’re here to make money and it’s all about the money. It’s the same as anyone else trying to make a living.
“You get a lot of pressure when you get into those big Stake races. It is a lot of pressure,” Henry said, noting the ability to handle that stress is critical. “That’s the difference between a good driver and a bad driver.”
While Clarke and Blanchard call it intuition, Henry describes it as visualization.
“You try to map it out before the race,” he said. “You can’t let anything else bother you. You have to be focused.”
Henry believes experience is the best teacher. “A lot of drivers are in their prime from age 25 into their 30s and 40s,” he said. “There is a lot of young guys who have done well.”
Henry notes that in recent years, there is a smaller circle of drivers.
“They’re all good guys,” he said of the professional camaraderie, but he is clear it is all about the win. “When you are on the track it’s really competitive. It’s a smaller circle than it used to be. It’s way more competitive than it used to be.”
One thing is sure: Henry does not like to lose. But when it happens, he doesn’t dwell on the mistakes.
“There are a lot of times when you get off the track and know what you did wrong,” he said, adding with a laugh, “The way it reads in the program is never the way it goes (on the track). When you get out there the whole race is going to change.”
Brian Tropea, general manager of the Ontario Harness Horse Association, a colleague and lifelong family friend, appreciates Henry’s skill.
“The driver has to make those split-second decisions and Trevor has the ability to do it,” said Tropea. “He doesn’t second-guess his decisions. And he accepts when it’s the wrong move, but he follows through.”
That understated confidence is one of the attributes Tropea suggests has given Henry credibility in his profession.
“His confidence in his abilities is probably his given strength and it’s well deserved confidence,” said Tropea, who adds Henry’s integrity has established his reliability with trainers.
“It’s testament to his work ethic … you have to commit to being there.”
Tropea noted that means regardless of weather conditions or distances to travel to get to the track, “If Trevor tells them he’s going to be there to drive, he’ll be there to drive.”
Since he started as a driver in 1989, Henry has more than 25,000 starts and is a lifetime winner of 4,598 races. His career wins have earned more than $30 million in purses.
In 2012 he secured the title of Driver of the Year at tracks in London, Clinton, Hanover, and Grand River Raceway.
With results like those, experience has taught him not to get nervous before a race.
“When you’ve done so much of it, nothing bothers you,” he said.
Harness racing is a dangerous business, no matter which side of the horse you’re on, and Henry admits he’s had a few accidents in his time, including an incident two years ago where he smashed his hand in a race. It didn’t keep him down for long.
“The best thing to do is get right back on the cart and do it again,” he said. “When you see a bad accident you can’t hold on to it in your mind.”
He laughs saying of his occupation, “You have to be a little off the wall.”
Taking calculated risks is part of the sport but Tropea is sure Henry’s regard for safety adds to his solid reputation amongst his colleagues.
“He has the respect of the drivers,” Tropea said. “They’re going 30 miles an hour within inches of each other. Trevor has the respect of the other drivers to be safe.”
Clarke agrees Henry’s career and reputation are based on his consistency.
“He’s been a very good driver for a long period of time,” said Clarke. “He’s become probably as good a strategist on a half-mile track as anybody I know. He can win from behind or from in front.”
Clarke added that proven success means, “Trevor has been able to drive some of the best horses at these tracks.”
Success breeds success and Tropea looks forward to Henry’s future.
“He has a full dance card now when he shows up at a race,” Tropea said. “Trevor is at a point in his career now where it just gets easier for him.”
Looking back on Henry’s 2012 record, Tropea said, “It’s phenomenal. You have to have a number of things work in your favor to accomplish what he did.
“You have to be healthy, you have to have a good relationship with trainers and you have to have good horses.”
With a bird’s eye view from the announcer’s booth at Western Fair Raceway, Blanchard has watched Henry’s win total escalate.
“He really went on a tear here last fall, when we started back in late October … from that point on he just widened his advantage. He was at the top of his game and it’s as good as I’ve ever seen him,” Blanchard said.
“What elevated Trevor last year was confidence. There was no indecision, no hesitation and that is something that can hurt a driver. If he was rolling and he had a good horse, he was confident. It just all came together for him, especially at the end of the year.”
Given that Western Fair is Henry’s winter racing location, Blanchard admits the national attention for Henry has been good for business, but seeing Henry achieve top-driver status has been a highlight.
“It’s fun to watch any athlete when they’re right at the top of their game, whatever the sport” said Blanchard. “When you’re watching a guy at the top of his game in harness racing, performing night in and night out … it’s something to watch.
“Even the other drivers and trainers, they kind of got behind it at the end of the season, cheering him on and wondering how many he would ultimately win.”
Shannon offers another perspective on Trevor’s success. In a year of career highs, she believes her husband’s momentum was inspired by the tremendous personal loss of his friend and business partner Dan McCann.
“We had a good deal. We owned Lucky Star (together) and she was a good filly. She made about $40,000. Americash Express was another,” Henry recalled fondly.
McCann passed away suddenly on Oct. 28, while he and Henry were in New York to receive an award for the 2012 Excelsior Two Year Old Filly Trot Champion (Americash Express, driven by Jim Morrill Jr., with trainer Mark Ford).
Shannon said McCann wanted Henry to win the top driver title and had pushed her husband to “go for it.” With two months to go to become Driver of the Year, she believes that was all the incentive Henry needed to honour the memory of his friend.
“Trevor knew he could do one last thing for Dan and he made good and sure he did,” she said. “His determination was to win it for him. It meant a lot to get Dan that title.”
That doesn’t discredit the hard work it took though, and Shannon, who has been a part of her husband’s journey to the top, is proud of his accomplishments.
“He deserved it, there is no doubt about that, because he has gone so hard for so long, since he was 18 years old,” she said.
“For all the time on the road and missing his family … this has really paid off for all of us. Everything just seemed to fall into place.”
In 2013, thoughts turn to the uncertain future of the Henry family’s livelihood.
Given the provincial government’s decision to end the $345-million Slots At Racetrack Program (SARP) that saw race tracks annually receive funding from Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission (OLG) casino profits, the horse racing industry, and all connected equine-related businesses in the province, are in jeopardy.
It is something families such as the Henrys have to consider, given it is the basis of their livelihood.
“When the government first wanted to come to the racetracks, it was a deal they made with the track and horsemen … for ten years. It’s a deal. I don’t get how it’s now called a “subsidy,”’ Henry said.
“They want to end the contract and call it a subsidy. Without us they wouldn’t have had a slots program in the first place.”
Henry is frustrated the public is misinformed of the facts.
“This isn’t a subsidy. We are all trying to make a living like everybody else. We do a lot for agriculture in Wellington County. If all these horses leave Wellington County, what will the hay and feed mills do?” he said.
He admits he’s thought of where he’d go to keep driving.
“I’ll go where it’s warm,” Henry said. “I’d hate to leave, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”
Shannon admits it is a concern, but they are waiting to see what happens.
“We can’t think about the end. We have to make the best of today, until they tell us there is an end,” she said. “We have to keep Trevor positive. We just have to laugh and keeping going on.”
Henry isn’t one to look back, but when asked how last year will impact his future, he said, “It will be tough. It was a great year. At times it was hard to believe. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that again.
“It will be a lot tougher now that they’re cutting back on racing events. Well, tougher on the bank account,” he joked. “But easier on me. I don’t want to be driving horses after I’m 50.”
With several years to go in a record-breaking career, Henry has achieved a legacy in the industry to which he has dedicated his life’s work. But you’d never know it.
For the driver, it’s just another day at the track and he’s just doing his job.
“He keeps it real. He’s the same guy he always was,” said Tropea.
Shannon agreed, adding, “He would rather win his races and never say a word.”
But that won’t stop others from talking or remembering the 533 wins that made Trevor Henry Canada’s Driver of the Year.
“People keep saying, ‘I don’t think anyone will ever see that kind of win again,’” said Shannon.
“And I think they’re right.”
