Beckwith and Ranger battle for driving title

Plainville, MA — It has been a heavyweight driving battle between Brett Beckwith and Bruce Ranger the entire harness racing meet at Plainridge Park and with only two wins separating them after going head-to-head since mid-April, it all comes down to the final week of the meet that kicks off on Monday (Nov. 25).

Beckwith is the current dash leader with 161 wins and that’s no surprise, as he has been on a driving tear all year at tracks across the northeast. So much so that his overall wins (558) this year have him sitting third among all drivers in North America, behind only Aaron Merriman (761) and Jason Bartlett (577). Beckwith has also earned $5,752,943 in purses which have him slotted 16th overall among all North American drivers. Beckwith is currently the runaway dash winner at Saratoga Raceway with 277 wins, 39 wins ahead of his nearest competitor, and has also gone over the $2 million mark in purse earnings, now with 2,233,913.

After finishing second by only one vote for the United States Harness Writers Association’s National Rising Star award last year, his performance during the 2024 season will have many looking his way once again next month when the ballots go out.

Ranger is sitting second at The Ridge with 159 wins but has also been driving in Maine all summer. As a result, he has a total of 211 overall wins and $2,392,819 in earnings and is completing the fourth straight year he has surpassed $2 million in earnings, the bulk of which were collected at The Ridge. With Ranger showing 10,466 career victories and $48,803,007 in earnings, this cagey veteran knows how to close out a season and win a title, as he has so many times before in his career.

Matty “Ice” Athearn, who turned in the best Plainridge performance of his career with 147 wins with four days to add to that total, sits third behind Beckwith and Ranger and is not mathematically eliminated yet. But it’s a deficit that would be difficult to make up. While also driving at Saratoga Raceway all year (where he has racked up 103 wins and is closing in on $1 million in purses), Athearn has posted his best win total ever (currently 258), second best UDR (currently .269) and has eclipsed the $3 million mark for earnings for the second consecutive year.

The 2024 Plainridge meet is also the first time ever that three drivers have surpassed $2 million in earnings and it’s no surprise they fall in the same order as their win positions. Beckwith ($2,429,958), Ranger ($2,107,893) and Athearn ($2,002,058) are the leading purse-earners.

There is no battle for training honors as Jimmy Nickerson wrapped that up some time ago. Nickerson starts off the week with 75 wins, which is well ahead of Domenico Cecere (48), Gretchen Athearn (40), Mark Beckwith (38) and Jolene Andrews (37), who fill out the top five.

Nickerson is also the only conditioner who will top the $1 million mark in earnings in 2024 and this will be the third consecutive year he has done it. This will be the fifth consecutive training title for Nickerson as he has won it every year since 2021.

The racing schedule for the final week has changed as the track will be dark on Thursday (Nov. 28) in observance of Thanksgiving. So live racing will be held on Monday (Nov. 25), Tuesday (Nov. 26), Wednesday (Nov. 27) and Friday (Nov. 29).