While deciding to leave the familiarity and comfort of the Maine harness racing circuit this year, Jason Bartlett had an idea what a worthwhile first season as a driver outside the Pine Tree State would entail.

The 27-year-old Windsor native decided to try his luck at the bigger tracks like Yonkers Raceway, Pocono, and the Meadowlands this year, figuring he could call it a success if he drove several races, notched a few top-three finishes, and made enough contacts to justify a return trip in 2009.

Seven months into his first season at Yonkers, Bartlett can already call it worthwhile, and then some. Considering his current status as Yonkers’ top driver and the nation’s ninth-ranked harness driver in terms of purse earnings ($2,376,037 through Thursday) or wins (277 in 1,328 starts), it’s a good bet he’ll be returning next year.

“I never thought I’d be the leading driver at Yonkers,” said the Erskine Academy graduate. “I didn’t expect for it to take off as well as it has, that’s for sure. It has to do with what horses and races you drive. It’s all due to trainers and owners.”

Well, not all. Anson’s Tom Dillon, who owns two horses contending for some of the richest and most prestigious races at Yonkers and the Meadowlands, says Bartlett’s talent also has a lot to do with it.

“There’s probably a number of people who leave this state and do well at the other bigger tracks, but there’s only a handful of drivers who can go from being good to great and he certainly has a chance to be one of those elite drivers,” said Dillon.

Two weeks ago, Bartlett drove 3-year-old Velocity Hall for Dillon and co-owner Walter Hight of Skowhegan in the $605,854 Yonkers Trot. Bartlett was well positioned for a top-three finish before a bad break.

“He was right behind Napoleon, the horse that won, but broke stride on the last turn,” said Dillon. “He would have finished first or second.”

That’s OK. Dillon still has a chance to get Velocity Hall into the $1.5 million Hambletonian.

Given Bartlett’s current average of a win every 4.8 starts, he stands a good chance of getting a second chance in the Hambletonian elimination race July 26. Even if he doesn’t, he won’t let that bother him.

“I guess the key is not getting too caught up in the highs and the lows, taking things race by race… I’ve done a lot better with that than I have in the past,” he said. “Before, I used to take things pretty hard, but there’s always another race.”

Bartlett said the main reasons he opted to leave Maine this season had to do with family and career aspirations.

“I’ve seen what my grandfather [Richard Bartlett] has to go through every day for the rest of his life. It’s what he loves to do, but I want to do it as a fun thing in my life, not a job that I have to do,” he explained “If I stayed up there, I’d have to work the rest of my life. Here if I do well, I can put a few years in, enjoy myself and still provide for my family.

“Plus I just got sick of how it’s feast or famine up there. You’ve either got six tracks going at once for much of the summer and then nothing in the winter. What you make in the summer, you have to spend in the winter just to make it.”

UMare marshals

Independence wasn’t the only thing celebrated July 4 as Bangor Raceway hosted the annual University of Maine Day, featuring retired racehorses that have been retrained in the UM equine program.

Each race’s post parade was marshaled by two “Umares,” including retired Maine Standardbreds like Best of Plans, owned and ridden by UMaine equestrian team president Rebecca Powers, who is also Bangor Raceway’s assistant race secretary; Belle’s Radiant Star, a 7-year-old mare ridden by UM animal and veterinary science major Lizz Carpenter; and 30-year-old Honest Appraisal, owned by Alton’s Melissa Spencer, who bought the horse from Bangor Raceway and retrained her as a dressage horse. Honest Appraisal become one of the few and perhaps the only Maine Standardbred to win a silver medal at second level dressage. The horse now known as Muffin accomplished the rare feat back in the 1990s.

aneff@bangordailynews.net

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