Trenton, NJ – Braxten Boyd is in a state of mind in Fresh York when he is preparing to defend his Tioga Downs Gurtracing Cup when the route opened on Saturday (May 3).
Boyd, who won a Fresh York Sire Stakes Championship with a 2-year-old male Trotter variegated last season (Chapter Seven) And hopes for other options on the racetrack this season, last year 114 victories in Tioga scored to win the travel title of 27 triumph over Michael Merton.
His trips in Tioga this weekend will be his first in Fresh York after spending winter and early spring in Meadowlands in Fresh Jersey and Mohegan Pennsylvania's Pocono Downs.
“A few good horses helps to drive, but there is a certain level of comfort with tioga,” said Boyd. “It is a five-mile-miles track and these tracks are 80 percent of my starts. But it is almost a bit at home in mind.
“The first meeting that I really started in Tioga was my first year in which I showed up there (in 2021). I was the second leading driver of Wally (Hennessey) and that only gives you a little comfort. You know the route, many of the trainers and horses. It just makes it a little easier.”
Boyd, a 25-year-old native Michigan, won more than just one track title last year. He had a career height in Siegen (337) and profits ($ 4.32 million) and won his first Fresh York Sire Stakes Championship by driving 55-1-long shot on the MGM Yonkers Raceway.
Outsiders were his specialties in the Stakes races when he also won a title in Indiana Sire Stakes with 129-1 long shot Black Gold in Harrah's Hoosier Park.
“If you look back on last year, you are very grateful for the possibilities you have received,” said Boyd. “You need a good horse to be able to win these races or even to be in these races. So you just have to be grateful that you got the shot to drive them.”
Boyd is proud of his route championship, but keeps his options open, hoping to drive more often on the Nys's racetrack.
“Of course I would like to defend it,” he said. “But when I get Fresh York Sire Stakes Horses, I want to drive her. That could prevent me from doing so. Obviously, that's a large goal, but that's not the number one goal. I really want to win tioga, but if it costs me to have a Fresh York Sire Stakes Horse, I don't worry about the title as a good Fresh York horse.”
And while he believed that his mission victory was “a little larger deal”, it did not affect the joy he had from the winning of the Tioga title.
“Being a leading driver on a route is pretty frigid,” he said. “When I won, I was able to stand there with my father (board) in the circle of the winner, and I could only feel how my grandfather (Ray) was sitting in the picture from above. It was a frigid moment because I could feel his love and his father taught everything and my father.
“I didn't get time with my grandpa because he died at the age of 3. But I could see that it probably meant more than anything on the upper floor. That was really surreal.”
In 2021, Boyd had a breakout year when he won $ 245 races and $ 1.81 million. He followed with 270 wins and a profit of almost $ 4 million in 2022 and received the Rising Star Award from the Monticello Gosen chapter of the US belt Writers Association.
When asked whether he felt the pressure to become a star afterwards, Braxten said: “It was more of an honor. Personally, trying to make a living. My family is proud of the number one. My father is my biggest fan of all time, and so my gramps are above and many people from my hometown are good friends of my father or fans.
Boyd will be blown away this season and 69 victories in the Meadowlands and Mohegan Pennsylvanias Pocono Downs before Tiogas opening.
Despite the race among Meadowland's delicate lights, Braxten said that the bright step was to leave East Rutherford to Tioga, the Nichols, NY, that approaches the home in Harvey, PA.
“It is not such a complex decision because I usually drive Meadowland every winter,” he said. “It is a business and you have to make a living. For my living, it only makes sense to go to Tioga. It would be great to stay there and fight with the large boys, but if you try to fight with the large boys on a horse that is not so good, it is really damn strenuous.”
He will run mainly in Tioga and Pocono, while he is looking for the Fresh York Sire Stakes.
This is the first summer in which Boyd drives as a committed man when he suggested crying Brandy Wine the week before Christmas. The two met in Florida and got on. They have several horses together and Brandy's brother tea is one of Boyd's main provider of drives.
“I am very blessed, I get many options from many different people,” he said. “Apart from my fiance's brother, I don't have anyone for whom I drive a lot of horses. So it was all my career. I am a bit a freelance type, but if I am a freelance type, you can trust me enough to get myself down again after we have drawn a bad point, we can normally handle it.”
While Boyd has consistently got better in his craft, one thing that has changed is the advice he receives from his coaching board.
“He gave up,” said Braxten with a laugh. “He gave some, but now he says: 'You have more victories than I started.' So he lets me handle it.
Almost as frigid as the anticipation for another season on the track, on which he is currently the top.
“Tioga is a good little summer place,” said Boyd. “Hopefully you will win a few races and have a little fun, earn a little money.”
For complete racing entries, click here: US trap entries.
from Opulent fishermanFor the Usta
