Over the past year or so, Caitlin Clark has been making headlines in women’s basketball, first as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes and now as a point guard for the Indiana Fever. To horse racing fans, I ask: Is Brett Beckwith the Caitlin Clark of harness racing?
They are nearly the same age (Clark 22, Beckwith 21). They both play sports that are overshadowed by more famous, comparable competition. They both set notable records.
And on the home straight of Saratoga Harness, word is that it’s only a matter of time before Beckwith gains a national reputation as a leading driver.
Beckwith grew up on the track; his mother, Melissa, is a prominent trainer, his father, Mark, a successful driver. And the family tree goes back even further: Melissa’s father, Jerry Silverman, is a Hall of Fame trainer, her brother is a trainer/driver, and Mark’s father and grandfather were both harness horsemen.
But while growing up in Saratoga Springs, Beckwith showed little interest in joining the family business. He played basketball for the Blue Streaks and had his eye on college.
“I wanted to study computer science,” he says. “I was a bit of a nerd.”
Photography by James Lisa
One evening, Beckwith’s career path changed at Meadowlands, the premier trotting track in the United States, located in East Rutherford, NJ.
“I watched my grandfather (Silverman) train horses back then,” Beckwith said. “All of a sudden I fell in love with the sport and wanted to do something with the horses. I also wanted to have something in common with my dad: growing up we had basketball.”
It was a good decision.
Beckwith only started riding professionally three years ago, at age 18, and in 2023 his winnings surpassed $4 million, a remarkable feat for someone just beginning his career. He also finished second in the driver standings at Saratoga Harness that year, and by the end of May he was atop the local standings with 157 wins from 554 starts for a winning percentage of 28.3. At Saratoga alone, he has earned more than $1 million in winnings. In both categories, he holds a significant lead over his nearest rivals.
And when I showed up to see the young, record-breaking rider on a warm May afternoon, he had already ridden one of his parents’ horses in a qualifying heat and was still two hours away from the day’s starting time. Saturday’s card consisted of 13 races – Beckwith ran in every one. By the end of the evening, he had three wins, three second places and a third place.
Four of those in-the-money finishes were on horses trained by one of his parents. “They have about 25 horses and I ride all of them,” Beckwith says. “Sometimes I have to go away and ride another horse in a race, but mostly I try to ride for them.”
He can be selective; in addition to his parents, he also chooses to ride for local trainers Jackie Greene and Kevin McDermott. In separate conversations, they used identical words to describe what makes Beckwith so good with their horses.
McDermott, who has been training horses for decades, says: “He doesn’t panic. He’s patient and nothing seems to faze him. He takes it all in his stride.”
Greene and her family lived next door to the Beckwiths for a while, and her daughter babysat him. “He comes from a family of respected horsemen, and he’s so down-to-earth and patient,” she says. “That helps a lot, especially on a half-mile track like Saratoga.”
Last summer, McDermott’s daughter Mary was instrumental in creating an event that packed the stands and platform at Saratoga Harness. Thoroughbred jockey Flavien Prat, whose father and brother train trotters in France, took on Beckwith in a match race to raise money for local nonprofits. Beckwith took the bait, and the event raised $15,000, which was split between Faith’s House, a low-cost childcare and education program that serves the children of employees on the Saratoga backstretch, and the Franklin Community Center, which provides local residents with a food pantry, after-school programs and a clothing and household goods distribution center.
“Brett was 100 percent for it,” Mary says. “He donated his wallet, too.”
Mary, a rider herself, uses the same language as her mother and father to describe the young rider. “He’s so calm, cool and collected,” she says. “He’s riding one of our horses, Reign of Honor, and it’s a blessing when he’s on it.”
There is another match race scheduled for this summer, and the event will undoubtedly once again fill Saratoga Harness with people who might not normally cross the street from Saratoga Race Course. Beckwith hopes that promotions like this, and top races like the Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Race on July 20, will increase the audience for standardbred racing.
“I’m biased,” he says, laughing. “I like it better here than at the thoroughbred track. There’s only 10 minutes between races, which is better for the gamblers, and the focus is really on the horses.”
Although Beckwith is already a star in harness racing, the McDermotts say it’s only a matter of time before he’s a household name, too.
“Watch out for Brett Beckwith,” Mary says. “He’s getting bigger and bigger. We’re blessed to have him, but that won’t last long. He’s going to the Grand Circuit and trainers will pick him up.”
Her father agreed.
“Brett has exceptional hands and he’s going to finish at the Meadowlands and on the Grand Circuit,” he said. “The sky’s the limit for Brett.”
