yannick gingras
Driver Yannick Gingras was born August 4, 1979 in Greenfield Park, Quebec and raised in Sorel, where he grew up on a farm with a 20-stall barn and a half-mile track. He remembers jogging horses with his father Raymond at five years of age, and training them by the time he was ten. It wasn’t until he was almost 18 when Gingras became a trainer and amateur driver for two years before getting his “A” license. Gingras drove in Canada until 2001 when he moved to Yonkers Raceway in New York where he enjoyed immediate success, winning the track’s Fall Drivers Championship.
Following a 426-win year in 2003 that earned him the United States Harness Writers Association’s Rising Star Award, he relocated to the Meadowlands, which has been his home base ever since.
Gingras is a two-time Dan Patch Driver of the Year (2014, 2017) who led the sport in earnings for four years and finished second four other times. He has to his credit 24 Breeders Crown victories, three Little Brown Jugs and six of the last eight Hambletonian Oaks. He has guided stars such as 2020 Horse of the Year Tall Dark Stranger p,3,1:47.1 ($2,020,195) and the sport’s richest Standardbred Foiled Again p,9,1:48f ($7,635,588). Gingras says Foiled Again’s 2013 win in the Breeders Crown at Pocono Downs was his most exciting career moment. Other stars driven by Gingras include trotting colts Father Patrick 3,1:50.2f ($2,558,133) and Southwind Frank 3,1:52.1 ($1,950,887), trotting fillies Manchego 4,1:49 ($3,144,777), Atlanta 6,1:49 ($3,123,852), Hannelore Hanover 5,1:49.2 ($3,069,857), Ariana G 4,1:50.2 ($2,465,459), Maven 4,1:51.4h ($2,001,461) and Mission Brief 3,1:50.2f ($1,599,587), and pacing fillies Darlin’s Delight p,4,1:49.1 ($2,901,926), Warrawee Ubeaut p,2,1:48.3 ($1,849,213) and Youaremycandygirl p,3,1:48.2 ($1,566,292).
Gingras had yet another successful year in 2021 as his horses earned $11.2 million. He upped his lifetime total to the 8,000-victory plateau after guiding Bettors Donttell p,4,1:47.3 ($162,514) to victory on Jan. 15, 2022 at the Meadowlands. With 45,790 starts, 8,102 wins, 6,966 seconds and 6,022 thirds, Yannick Gingras ranks 6th on the list of all-time moneywinning drivers with $205,040,238.
Yannick Gingras resides in Allentown, New Jersey with his wife Vicki, son Jaiden and daughters Addison and Averi.