Young Carter on the road to success

This past February, neophyte harness racing driver William Carter put on quite a performance.

The 19-year-old won ten races during two nights of racing at the Fort Washington, Maryland-based oval—better known as Rosecroft Raceway—first on Feb. 20, when he scored four driving wins, followed by six trips to the winner’s circle on Feb. 22. To date he has driven 89 winners to $720,987 in purse earnings.

Obviously, Carter’s path to success didn’t just begin this season. Last year, as an 18-year-old at Rosecroft, he scored four triumphs on Feb. 7, 2023, including a 1:56.4 win with A Lady Sizzling in the Stevenson Memorial for trainer Thomas Amour.

Also, using the term “neophyte” to describe Carter does not completely apply to this teenager, who began driving in 2021, at the ripe old age of 17. That season, Carter, clad in his black and red silks, grabbed two wins, seven seconds and two thirds in 13 starts, amassing $7,925.

“From my earliest memories I remember jogging a horse while sitting on my dad’s lap,” Carter told John Berry, Harness Racing Hall of Fame journalist, on the March 7 edition of the *Harness Racing Alumni Show. *“I continued working with the horses as a kid and early in my teens I knew I wanted to work with the horses.”

Carter’s father, William D. “Billy” Carter, has trained and driven horses on the East Coast for more than two decades, garnering $2,374,424 in driver’s earnings from 389 wins, and $420,489 in training triumphs.

The younger Carter scored his first wins with Onlyinthemoonlite at Shenandoah Downs on Sept. 3, 2021, timed in 1:05.2 in a $2,500 maiden event. He followed that up by winning the very next race with the pacer Benevolence, in a front-stepping time of 1:58 in a $3,000 Winners Over contest.

“We were at a county fair (Woodstock) during a four-day meet, and on the second day won with my own horse, and then I won with my dad’s horse in the very next start,” Carter remembered. “I was nervous scoring down, but then once I got behind the gate all the nerves went away.”

Carter drove in a total of 24 qualifying and fair races that season, learning the sport via his father and other conditioners who put him down to drive, such as trainers Clyde Francis, John Marsh, and Michael Whitaker.

In 2022 Carter upped those previous numbers, by scoring a 9-9-15 record from 100 starts, with earnings of $52,210. He drove horses at Freehold, Pocono Downs, Harrah’s Philadelphia, Rosecroft, Shenandoah, and Dover Downs.

Last season, he went behind the gate with 720 horses, winning 53 races, with 57 seconds, and 86 thirds, for $518,073 in earnings.

“The last few years, I was still learning how to drive and the tricks of the trade,” Carter offered. “I’ve been extremely fortunate that people have been putting me down on horses who go forward. At the end of last year, I qualified one for trainer Tony Alagna, and she qualified well, and then went to the sale and sold for $100,000. Those kinds of things always help.”

Freak On A Leash, an altered son of World Of Rocknroll, is one of Carter’s favorite horses, owned and trained by his father Billy. The earner of $160,950 lifetime took a 9-year-old record of 1:55 on Feb. 22, 2024, at Rosecroft with Carter at the lines.

“Freak On A Leash tries hard and is great in the barn, I love that horse,” said Carter. “You drive horses and put them in play and if you’re lucky, they all go forward. I’m blessed and grateful for everyone giving me the opportunity to drive for them.”

Carter was also behind the 2023 Maryland Sires stakes winner Rusty’s Baby Ruth, a 2-year-old filly by Rusty’s For Real, for trainer Elwood Tignor. The filly won $82,825 and took a first-year mark of 1:57.4h. Carter was at the lines in every start last season for owner Ashley Page of Loris, SC, as she won four races, with three seconds and one third in eight starts as a 2-year-old.

“With Rusty’s Baby Ruth, I had a lot of confidence in my horse and knew she’d be good,” Carter said. “That horse is special because the trainer, Elwood, is my dad’s friend, and dad asked him if I could qualify the horse, and I finished second in her first start and then in the second and third starts we won—they were the elims before the final. In the final, she was incredibly good, finishing a strong second, and it was great that Elwood gave me the opportunity to drive her.”

Carter said he will continue racing at Rosecroft and anywhere else on the East Coast, until the beginning of April, when he’ll head to Virginia.

“Every young driver has the same goal, and that is to win stakes races,” he concluded. “But right now I just want to win as many races as I can. I have a few in the barn that I train myself, which I enjoy. I don’t think I could just drive; I would miss working with the horses in the mornings a little too much.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink