A new face is making waves within the Indiana harness racing driver’s colony.
And unlike the recent tsunami of Down Under reinsmen, this youngster comes from the middle of the Atlantic. His name is Kiwon Waldron, he’s 24, and a native of Bermuda, an island colonized by Great Britian and located about 643 miles east of North Carolina.
Kiwon Waldron (thephotodesk.ca)
“I was born into the horse business,” Kiwon said. “My grandfather had horses and did carriage driving, and my uncle and brother both raced the trotting-bred ponies. I was just following in the footsteps of the path that had been laid out before me.”
Kiwon said he did not take to riding as much as driving, from an early age.
“Sitting behind the ponies always appealed to me more than being on top of them,” he offered. “We did carriage driving—competing in agricultural exhibitions—until I was 12, and then I started racing ponies. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be involved in some type of discipline with horses and even though I tried riding, I gravitated to driving, and after I started driving in races, I really got the bug.”
In Bermuda, which is home to some 64,000 residents, there is one racetrack outside the capital city of Hamilton. It is located on an equestrian complex known as The Bermuda Equestrian Center in an area known as Devonshire and is one fifth of a mile in circumference.
“We compete over the dirt, and typically race twice around, in two-heat competitions,” Kiwon explained. “There isn’t a lot of money in racing, you might get a ribbon or a trophy, except for a couple of times a year. The track is built into a quarry made of limestone, which Bermuda has plenty of. Some people have their own tracks at their farms, but this is the only official commercial track that we have.”
Inside the small racing oval are two arenas, which can accommodate show jumping, dressage, and carriage driving competitions. The racing season is held from October until the beginning of March, so until this year, that schedule worked out perfectly for Kiwon.
“We never get really cold weather there; it’s quite comfortable most of the time,” he said. “Fifty degrees might be the coldest that it gets, so we can train horses all year ‘round.”
Although this will be the first time that Kiwon will stay in the United States for an extended period of time, he initially came to America, and specifically to Indiana, when he was just 14.
“During the summers, I would go to LaGrange and Nappanee to race the trotting-breds,” he explained. “I did that from age 14 until I was 20, racing on their circuits. We have a lot of contacts there because that’s where Bermudans get their ponies. There were a lot of differences initially, but it gave me some valuable experience.”
In Bermuda, Kiwon said local horseman Daniel Greenslade was the first person outside of his family to give him guidance in the horse industry.
“Daniel is a third-generation horseman from Bermuda who mainly has carriage horses of all kinds—hackneys, Dutch harness horses, and Morgans,” Kiwon noted. “I was fortunate that he took me under his wing, taught me how to be a man, and put me behind a lot of different horses and really helped me with horse knowledge, and bought me my first racing pony.”
After graduating from high school in 2018, a chance meeting with Canadian trainer Rene Allard would give Kiwon his first taste of pari-mutuel North American racing.
“He came down to Bermuda for our big stake races—our champions of champions—as he had a buddy who invited him,” Kiwon recalled. “He said he was very impressed with my driving ability and then he invited me to come to Quebec, that was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up. When I first got there, it was a bit of a culture shock—the language and going from the ponies to the Standardbreds was a bit different. I raced mostly at the fairs, and the people were very welcoming.”
Kiwon made his first start pari-mutuel in North America a winning one, piloting Shemaksmefelunreal for Michel Allard at the Hippodrome 3R on July 13, 2019. The freshman daughter by Sunshine Beach-Dreamfair Orchid-No Pan Intended paced the mile in 2:05.4, besting five rivals.
“She had a good chance of being a winner, and it was my job to get her around there and keep her out of trouble,” Kiwon said reflectively. “It was pretty exciting and just confirmed that I wanted to do this more and more.”
Kiwon would spend the rest of the season competing on the Quebec harness racing fair circuit, known as the Circuit Regional des Courses de Chevaux du Quebec, at the county fair tracks at Saint Esprit, Ayers Cliff and Bedford. That first year in North America (2019) saw Kiwon rack up 14 wins, 7 seconds, and 1 third in just 26 starts for $16,370 in earnings, but a super impressive UDR of .701. That year at the Fair Finals held at H3R, he scored four winners and people began to recognize that the young man had talent.
“Those half-mile tracks offered a lot, strategy-wise,” he stressed. “When I went back home that fall, I couldn’t stop thinking about Standardbreds and about driving them on the bigger stage.”
In 2022, Kiwon began the year by driving in Pompano Park qualifiers in early February, before returning to the Allard Stable at Three Rivers at the end of April.
“I got my ‘P’ license at Pompano, which was a big deal, and went back to Quebec, where I cleaned stalls, rubbed horses, and helped to jog and train,” he said.
When he returned home, he had nabbed 17 wins, 12 seconds and 13 thirds from 131 starts, with seasonal earnings of $58,436. As a result, Kiwon was named 2022 Rookie of the Year at the Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres.
“I didn’t expect that, but there were three rookies up there that year and I was already back home when I found out about that,” he said. “That was an unexpected, but nice honor.”
News of Kiwon’s achievement quickly spread to Bermuda, where he was profiled, and continues to be profiled by the Bermuda based newspaper, The Royal Gazette.
“The Royal Gazette loves to promote their Bermudians, not just me, but anyone who excels in any sport,” Kiwon explained. They do an excellent job of keeping the locals informed on what’s going on with many of the expats.”
The following year, 2023, was a long one for Kiwon. He sat out the season in order to get the paperwork completed so that he could come to North America on a permanent basis.
“It was a massive process,” he said. “I had to apply for a visa, and then it was a constant bouncing back between myself and lawyers, to make sure that we had everything in order that we needed.
I finally got the acknowledgement of the visa in May of 2024, and a few weeks later, I was here.”
Kiwon settled in Indiana, going to work for Jamie and Ricky Macomber, who are stabled at Hoosier Park.
“Jamie was a big help in me getting my visa—she had to do a lot of work on her side,” Kiwon said. “I got to know Jamie and Ricky through word of mouth. I really liked the experiences I had in Quebec, but I felt there were more opportunities here and there isn’t a language barrier, and I’m able to see some of my Amish buddies from up north.”
Kiwon scored his first win of the season when he piloted Airbus to a 1:54.4 dead heat triumph on July 27 at Hoosier, pairing with rival Image of Anera (Kyle Wilfong) to get the job done.
“It was a lot more exciting because my friends who I raced ponies with owned the horse, and it was their first lifetime win at Hoosier, so we kind of came full circle together,” Kiwon said. “Plus, I was so new to the place at that time that it was simply great.”
Since that first victory, Kiwon has scored five more wins: with Sweet Boy Ben on Aug. 3 in 1:54.3 for trainer Jeff Cullipher; a trio of wins with Spirit And Heart in ISS 2-year-old colt competition on Aug 14 (1:56.3), on Aug. 21 (1:53.4), on Aug. 29 (1:51.3) for trainer Eli Schwartz; and with Rockin The Jackpot for Luis Quevedo in 1:53.1 on Sept. 10. Thus far this season he has six wins, three seconds, and two thirds in 73 starts, with $47,850 earned.
“I hope that I can keep making the most of it,” Kiwon acknowledged. “I’m here now, and really want to be successful.”
by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink
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Publish date : 2024-09-23 04:51:00
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