It is not every day that a 20-year-old driver reaches the $4 million mark in earnings in a single season, but perhaps Brett Beckwith is not your everyday horseman. A fourth-generation participant, Beckwith’s family is rich in tradition when it comes to Harness Racing and despite him not getting involved in the sport until his teen years, the New York resident has seen his career take off in a hurry, with earnings climbing from $1 million at age 18 to $2.2 million at 19 to $4.2 million at 20. While keeping a busy schedule that has him driving at Meadowlands, Yonkers, Saratoga, Freehold, Batavia, Plainridge and other tracks, Beckwith found some time during a session at the gym to discuss his quick ascent as a driver and his future. Enjoy! How far back does the Beckwith family tree go in harness racing? Goes back from my mom and dad’s parents to their parents. I’d say four generations. On my dad’s side, my grandfather Bert and his father Mel were both involved. You weren’t “sold” on a career in the sport early on. What turned you on to harness racing as a career? A lot of it was just watching the bigger races at The Meadowlands. That really intrigued me. I always wanted something that my dad and I could have in common and that was my best option. Then I fell in love with it. What lessons did you learn from your mom (Melissa) and dad (Mark) about harness racing? Between the both of them the main thing I learned is work ethic. In this business you either have to be extremely talented or you have to have a good work ethic, so I chose work ethic. So, are you saying that you aren’t extremely talented? I think I’ve had a lot of great opportunities at an extremely young age. I just take them as they come. I’m not saying I’m not the worst or the best driver in the sport. I just know without work ethic you don’t get far. Your dad has 5,876 wins but has basically stopped driving at just 57. Any idea why? I basically put him in retirement. He wanted to get me going and started to put me down. I ended up driving the whole stable and he got more enjoyment out of watching me drive than he did driving himself. It was also a little less pressure on him and he could focus on the horses and the stable. If it is true that each generation is supposed to best the previous one, what does it say that at only 20 years old you now have more single season wins and earnings than your dad? If you ask him he’d say that I’m light years better than he was at my age, but I’d beg to differ. I’ve watched him drive a lot and he can make a lot of speed and get a lot out of a horse. My favorite times are when we are racing together. It doesn’t happen much anymore but those are fun times. The achievement of earning over $4 million in purses at age 20 is extremely rare. Is it hard to believe you’ve come so far so fast? Absolutely. If you would’ve asked me three years ago I would’ve called you probably crazy if you told me I’d be driving horses for a living. It takes a lot of good opportunities and a lot of things have to go your way to drive for a living. You’ve been racing at tracks all over the east coast as you make a name for yourself. What does your 2024 schedule look like? Saratoga doesn’t open up until February. I think I have one vacation planned in January and then I’ll go right back to work. I want to race at The Meadowlands on the weekends and Freehold in the afternoon. I started to going to Batavia a little last year so I’ll probably head back that way on Wednesdays until Saratoga opens. Then Saratoga will take up the majority of my schedule. Your father concentrated on overnights throughout his career. Do you see yourself as more of a Grand Circuit guy down the road? That’s everyone’s dream. I’d love to do what all those guys do and travel with those horses. There is no real feeling like driving young horses. I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching them progress. I also think it would be fun to travel around and drive different horses on the Grand Circuit, but it takes the right opportunity to come your way to do something like that. Does it boggle your mind to look on the USTA website and see your name right next to a Hall of Famer like Tim Tetrick in terms of wins in 2023? Yeah it does, but all of those names haven’t come without a lot of starts. It’s been an incredible year. What is your favorite track to race at? Why? The Meadowlands by far. There is no other feeling like winning a race there. I also like the strategy that comes with mile racing more than half-mile racing. Do you think you have a style of driving? I’d like to say I’m pretty versatile. If you race at Saratoga you have to be aggressive to win races. When it comes to The Meadowlands I think I drive the track very well. It is a different style but you just need to get adapted to it. Is there a stakes race you want to win in your career? Probably the Little Brown Jug because of the amount of fans that are there. It seems like it would be a surreal moment. Last year Chris Page won it and that’s his home track. Winning a big race like that on your home track has to be surreal. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? With the schedule I keep all year round, not much. I go to the barn every morning, then to the gym and race. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don’t know? I’m a lot harder on myself than most people realize. You see all these people who post on Twitter, they don’t realize that I’m thinking the same thing they said. I know when I f***cked up, obviously. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Competitiveness. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten or given about harness racing? Don’t get too high on the highs and don’t get too low on the lows. Yannick [Gingras] told me that. What was your best moment in harness racing? I’ve had some great wins for some great people. I guess my best moment wasn’t even a win. It was just racing in the Joe Gerrity Pace at my home track in Saratoga. I’ve had some drives in New York Sire Stakes but that was the first race which went for a large sum of money like that. Which is the best horse you’ve ever driven? Obviously the horse [Semi Tough] I drove for [Ron] Burke in the Gerrity, but there are two that stick out for me as my favorites. There is a mare we have named Probert who is as tough as they come and Century Endeavor. You can really feel him give his all every time he races. When you know that a horse is putting their best foot forward you can’t ask for more than that. You competed against Flavien Prat in a charity race at Saratoga earlier this year. What was that experience like? It was really good. There were an absurd amount of people in the grandstand, which is really nice to see. Do you think that event opened up some eyes to harness racing? Absolutely. I know a lot of Thoroughbred people who came and were talking about having never been to the harness track. I think we are going to put on another race like that in 2024. Along those lines, does the sport do enough promotion, specifically to attract a younger audience? I think we are getting better at it. That being said, I think there is more we can do. I’m not sure how we can set it up, but FanDuel is the most popular sports betting app and if you could somehow offer wagers where people could bet over/under 3.5 on the number of races Yannick wins on the night or on whether an eight-horse will win on a program, that could be good. We need something to spice up the betting more because a lot of the younger generation doesn’t understand the game. I think it would be a huge hit. [DRF HARNESS: Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter] If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? The more tracks that can align their schedules so they aren’t conflicting with each other, the better it would be for the drivers, trainers and gamblers. How do you view the future of harness racing? I do think our future is bright if we can all get together to do the right thing. Do you think working together is something the sport has proven to be good at? No. We need to get better at working together and realize that we all have the same end goal. Can you tell me a story about an interesting driving experience? The worst driving experience I had was having a bit break during a race. It was quite impressive; the horse didn’t go inside a single pylon. I was just holding on. Time for the stretch drive: Best Horse you ever saw:  Bulldog Hanover. Lasix – Yes or No: Absolutely yes. Favorite TV Show: Suits. Trotters or Pacers:  Trotters. There’s nothing like a young trotter.