While Patrick Ryder was born into harness racing as the son of Hall of Fame trainer Chris Ryder, he certainly didn’t jump in feet first at the start. The 30-year-old started his driving career in 2021 at age 26 and has seen his totals steadily increase. While his 92 career wins don’t jump off the page, he won 59 of them last year and already has eight in 2025. After working at the barn in the morning, Patrick took some time out to discuss his path thus far, his recent three-bagger at The Meadowlands and what his future holds. Enjoy!   You were exposed to harness racing by your dad Chris Ryder. Did you love it from the start or did it take time for that to happen? I always had a love for animals, even as a really young kid. When I was a young kid I wanted to be like Steve Irwin [The Crocodile Hunter]. I didn’t necessary love horse racing when I was first exposed to it but I definitely loved the horses. As I got a bit older, like 12 to 14, I started to like horse racing. How did your involvement with harness racing get to where it is now? I worked with my father for a lot of summers at the barn. I really enjoyed just getting to spend more time with my dad because he was always so busy racing. I kind of had a dream that I always wanted to drive from a young age but I never really thought it would be a possibility. I started jogging and training at the farm a lot and one thing led to another. Ronnie Pierce was great to me as a young kid. He was like a dad to me and I always looked up to him as a young driver. I was great friends with his kids growing up and he and my dad have been friends forever. He loves the outdoors, like hunting and fishing, and my dad wasn’t so much into that stuff, so Ronnie would take me like I was one of his sons. He took me a lot over the years. Is it true that there was a chance you would be completely disconnected from harness racing? It is true. Me and my wife [Nadia Tarnawa] bought a house in Colorado and I just wasn’t ready to move out there and give up working with my father or driving. I kind of decided before but it was a definitive moment because if we would’ve went it would’ve meant the end of harness racing for me. We found out my wife was pregnant with my son and it just didn’t make sense to go. From your start in 2021 you have increased your number of drives, wins and earnings each year. Are you happy with the progression? I feel like I’ve been working pretty hard and I work with my father in the barn every day. I’m not that happy with the progression, I’d like it to be faster, but I’m so pleased with the opportunities I’ve been given and I’m very hungry still; I’m not content. Did you see a clear path to a faster progression? I’m hoping to get to drive better caliber horses this year. I think I’ve kind of proven over the last year and a half or so that I can win races. I’d like to try more stakes horses, better caliber horses. I think that is the path to a faster progression, maybe. You won 13 of your 59 races at Freehold Raceway in 2024. How much has the closure of that track affected you? It sucks. It really stinks. It is really hard to drive much power when you are at the tracks with all the leading drivers in the country. It was awesome to have Freehold right around the corner from us. My dad drove there for years. It is a real shame that it is gone. Instead of driving the longer shots in races, at Freehold there were some times when I got to drive the favorites. Recently you won three races on one card at The Meadowlands. Is that almost like a dream come true? It was pretty cool, especially to win three on one card. If you would’ve told me before the night that I had a chance to win three that night I wouldn’t have believed you. It just worked out. What is your favorite track to race at? Why? I love The Meadowlands because there is nothing like winning races there, but I definitely enjoy driving at Chester [Harrah’s Philadelphia] too. I like five-eighths mile racing and I feel like I drive well at Chester but there is nothing like winning on the mile track at The Meadowlands. What is your favorite thing to do outside of harness racing? Spend time with my wife and son [Harry]. I really love snowboarding, also, but it has been a little tougher to do that lately. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don’t know? I worked on a commercial lobster fishing boat for a few years. I wanted to be a professional snowboarder for a little while, too. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Thrilling. There is nothing like it. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten about harness racing? My father has given me so much advice it is hard to remember just one. I think the best advice that he is giving me is to just keep at it. Sometimes things can be so discouraging, like you go drive a whole card of horses and not one of them get a check. Then a few weeks later you end up winning three races in one night at The Meadowlands, so I think it is pretty good advice. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter What was your best moment in harness racing? Finishing second with my filly that I bought at the yearling sale for $21,000 named Lisa Lane. We finished second in the New Jersey Sire Stakes by a nose going for like $240,000. I hadn’t been driving very long at that point, she’s 5 now, so it was three years ago. That was pretty special because I owned 50 percent of her with my father. How many horses do you currently own? I don’t own 100 percent of any of them but I own pieces of four horses. I usually buy a piece of a yearling with my father, sometimes more than one depending on what the prices are like. Do you train any horses yourself? I don’t have any horses in my name but I’ve been working closely with my father every morning for years now. All of the horses I own race in my dad’s name but my father and I work very closely running his business. Do you envision at some point going the training route or driving and training? My priority is really to drive but especially as my father gets older there could definitely be room for me to train too. Which is the best horse you’ve ever driven? Probably Tarrific. I just drove her one time in a smaller stakes race at The Meadowlands because Dexter [Dunn] wasn’t going to be there. She had a few big races coming up and my dad just wanted her to have an easy run because she had quite a few tough races on the front. I got to drive her that day and that was pretty cool. I’ve sat behind [training] some really nice ones for my dad like Bettor’s Wish, Niki Hill and Party Girl Hill, but I’ve never driven them in a race. You’ve mentioned all of these top horses. One of them is also Horse of the Year Twin B Joe Fresh. It must be nice to train them daily? Oh yeah. To be completely honest, I don’t ever sit behind Twin B Joe Fresh. My dad or [co-owner] Pete Trebotica always take her. But every other good horse he’s had I’ve always trained them. I guess because Pete owns a piece of her he always sits behind her, which is great. One of the horses you’ve been driving regularly is the lightly raced 5-year-old Luke’s Bar. Do you see him continuing to improve? We tried a little something different with his shoeing the other night and it just didn’t suit him. It is hard to say how much he can improve but I really enjoy driving him. When I first started driving him I didn’t enjoy it at all. He was too hot and he would go like crazy to the half and trot in the stretch really bad. My dad made a few changes on him, opened him up and put a mini-bit on him, and it totally changed his whole demeanor around. Now I love driving him. You can drive him however you want now and he just tries so hard. No matter how tired he is when you turn for home, when you pull the ear plugs out he just gives his all no matter what he’s done in the mile. I feel like it is rare that you come across one that tries as hard as he does. What is your ideal vision for the future of your career? Drive on the Grand Circuit; travel all over and drive as many big races as I can. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? I’d love to find a way to get rid of the people that don’t treat horses correctly, but that is easier said than done. I just think a few bad apples cause people that don’t know our business to have a negative connotation to it. A lot of them don’t realize that if they just spent a couple of days around the barn and saw the way 99 percent of people treat the horses, they would be amazed. Our horses get treated like royalty. They have caretakers and all sorts of therapeutic things to take care of their legs and feet. How do you view the future of harness racing? I’m a super-optimistic person. If someone comes to me with a whole bunch of bad news I instantly look for the good in it. My mom [Nicola] taught me to be like that a little. On the East Coast we have The Meadowlands and it is wonderful, but a lot of the other tracks, especially with Freehold gone and the purses going down at Chester, it is a little worrying. It seems like Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana are booming for racing in the present but I’m still optimistic that things will be ok here on the East Coast. What does a day in the life of Patrick Ryder look like? I wake up and go to train with my father at the barn. I usually finish around 1pm or so and it depends if I’m racing or not. In the summer I’m racing almost every day. I’m usually at Pocono Monday and Tuesday, Chester on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then Meadowlands Friday and Saturday nights. In the winter it is a lot nicer because I’m pretty much racing at just The Meadowlands. When I’m done at 1pm I go home to shower and get a bite to eat before picking up my 3-year-old son from daycare. Then I usually do something with him while waiting for my wife to come home from work so we can cook dinner and hang out. Time for the stretch drive. Best Horse you ever saw:  Twin B Joe Fresh. She’s amazing. Lasix – Yes or No: Yes. Favorite TV Show: I don’t really have one. I liked that Peacock show The Jackal. Trotters or Pacers:  Pacers.