High-percentage rookie aiming for more

Monica Sutherland completed her first season of pari-mutuel harness racing driving with 20 wins in 105 starts – a 19 per cent strike rate.

The Port Hood, N.S. native debuted on May 28, 2023 at Inverness Raceway with Eastcoast Ms Haney (Arthur Blue Chip), a mare she trains that is a homebred for her father, Todd Sutherland. The pair were a well-beaten third in that race, but Sutherland and Eastcoast Ms Haney recorded their first victories together two weeks later in a photo finish win at the same track. The driver secured a second milestone on the same card as she steered Eastcoast Invader (Rollwithitharry) to success in the sixth race.

Sutherland denoted those initial wins as one of the season’s highlights.

“My first couple wins were pretty exciting,” she said. “It was all good, I had lots of fun.”

Though they were the first tallies in her official account, they weren’t the first time Sutherland had seen driving success. The 24-year-old competed in amateur races in Nova Scotia for several years before her 2023 debut, racking up “a few wins.” She said racing in those events helped her to gain experience and that they hooked her on becoming a driver. After securing her trainer’s license in 2020, she worked on her driving qualifications.

Sutherland said she takes pleasure from racing in the sulky, but added that it comes with practical benefits.

“I just like the thrill of it, especially driving your own horses,” she said. “It’s good to know who’s going to be driving them.

“Most of the horses that I drove are my own, and most of them are homebreds too, so it’s definitely more special. You’re with them since day one, and I do all the training, so I kind of know everything about them. So, when they’re going to race, you know what they’re like, so it definitely helps.”

That connection contributed to Sutherland’s favourite moment of the season. On Aug. 26, she piloted Eastcoast Ms Haney in an Atlantic Sires Stakes B Division contest. The reinswoman popped the pocket nearing the half and kept her charge marching on pacesetter Weather The Storm into the final quarter. Eastcoast Ms Haney grinded away into the stretch and stuck her nose in front of Weather The Storm in the final strides for the 2:04.4 triumph. The importance, for Sutherland, was that it was her first stakes win, and it came with her trainee and a family homebred.

EASTCOAST MS HANEY / MONICA SUTHERLAND REPLAY

Like many in harness racing, she got involved through her family. Todd Sutherland owns and breeds a large proportion of the clan’s horses while Alex Sutherland, Monica’s great uncle, owns and trains several of them. Monica Sutherland is already an accomplished conditioner with 25 wins in 142 starts, a win rate of 17.6 per cent, since 2020. She is an electrician outside of racing, a trade she was introduced to by her grandfather and that she studied since high school.

Sutherland said she’s had support on her journey.

“I wrote my (driver’s) test (in 2022) and did my qualifiers (in 2023) — everyone kind of helped me out here,” she said. “There’s a good crew that kind of helps you around here, everyone’s pretty good to you, so it helped me go for my driver’s (license).”

Her successes earned her a berth in the Gamester-Pinkney Memorial Cup, a contest for young drivers in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. She won the first leg, securing her a place in the final, but after her horse got away from her in the post parade of leg two, the organizers removed her from the championship round. Many horsepeople and fans protested the decision, and Sutherland was reinstated and finished fourth in the final.

Though she expressed disdain at the officials’ initial action of removing her, she said the contest was great overall.

“It was good for all the young people to get more recognition and experience — it was a really good program altogether,” she said.

Sutherland has enjoyed the competition in general in her first season of driving. She remarked that it’s been especially fun to defeat her male opponents — “It’s pretty nice beating them, being the only girl and beating the boys” — but also that gender hasn’t been much of an issue: “everyone kind of treats you the same, everyone’s pretty good to me,” she said.

Going into 2024, Sutherland said she’s aiming to win more and keep improving.

“You’re still learning every day,” she said. “(I’ll be) trying to work on everything really — trying to time stuff better, rate the race, things like that.”

“(I hope to) just have another successful year. I’d like to win a few races than I did last year — just be safe and successful again.”

Racing in Nova Scotia will begin in May as Northside Downs, Truro Raceway, and Inverness Raceway all kick off their seasons. One of the province’s top rookie drivers will be looking to do even more as a sophomore.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink