A special Tuesday (Jan. 26) edition of COSA TV featured driver Austin Sorrie discussing his career as a driver ahead of the 2020 O’Brien Awards, for which he has received a nomination for Rising Star of the Year.
The 21-year-old native of Montague, P.E.I. began driving horses from an early age and had his sights fully set on harness racing.
“My father had horses and right from day one I’d be skipping school to go the barn; just be faking sick to go to the barn,” Sorrie said. “I always used to beat the bed posts off the bed all the time with the whips every time I came home. I went to the track just to collect whips, that’s all I went for.”
Growing up in the Maritimes, Sorrie looked up to drivers like Marc Campbell, who he said “can make one go unreal. He could be 100-1 and he jumps onto it and he just takes off.” Sorrie’s own potential star power glimmered early, well before the reinsman could acquire his professional license. He started competing with horses on the matinee circuit of P.E.I., where he managed to set a track record of 1:57.2 down at Pinette Raceway.
“We had the mare One Hot Bet—she hadn’t been [any] good for like two weeks,” Sorrie said. “So dad goes ‘well, you can drive her in the matinee and just let her roll.’ And I was like ‘Okay. She can go [1:]57 over at Charlottetown, hopefully [she can] go [1:]58. I want to go fast.’ Put her behind the gate and I just went as fast and as far as we could go.
“I came back and they were like ‘You know how fast you went?’ and I’m like ‘No, probably like two minutes?’ She had been no good, she paced like two minutes the week before. [They said 1:]57, and I was like ‘No way. You got the time wrong.’ And a bunch of people after that were like ‘No, we had it in the phones and everything.’”
Once becoming of age to attain his professional license, Sorrie took off. In 2018 (his first full year of driving), he won 32 races from 272. The next year, he won 80 races from 654 starts while taking the plunge away from his home province to work for trainer Patrick Shepherd and race in Ontario. After his first full year in Ontario—even with the two-month shutdown—Sorrie won 151 races from 1,205 starts and pushed past the million-dollar plateau in career earnings.
“The transition was tough to start, it took a lot to get used to,” Sorrie said of moving tack. “Down home, we only race one night a week in the wintertime and then we shut down for two months. And up here you go seven days a week straight and nonstop.
“There’s been tons of people who have helped me out through my career. I moved in with J Harris, where I’m still living now. He told me if I came to work for Patrick, he’d give me a shot driving some horses each week. As long as I worked, I got the drives. Peter Brickman and Irish Thunder, the Preferred 3 Trotter—a nice horse to drive and be winning with him—he helped out a lot, getting that drive. Just about everybody who gives me a shot putting me down helps my career every time.
In the few short years Sorrie has been a professional driver, he has already noticed how he has improved and matured at his craft, thanks in part to his experience racing on P.E.I.’s matinee circuit.
“It teaches you a lot quick in the matinees,” Sorrie said. “You get people hooking up all the time. You always have to be paying attention because you’re nervous, too. It’s a big step to being a catch driver if you want to start.
“I see a big difference because when I first got my license I had everything on the front; the only spot I could win was on the front. And now it doesn’t matter where I get away. You can plan the race out as it unfolds, it doesn’t matter. You can be first up, second over, on the front; doesn’t matter where you sit. As long as you have a horse in the right spot, you have a shot to win.”
Alongside the numbers, Sorrie has marked himself a competitive driver on the Ontario circuit. The young driver said that his career highlights since moving include when he won five races at The Raceway at Western Fair District on Nov. 30, and scoring his first win at Woodbine Mohawk Park in his first drive back in 2019.
“I should’ve won six, being a little greedy,” Sorrie said of his five-pick in London. “We were leaving the gate and I pushed him a little too much and he ran. I was parked the whole mile and still finished third.
“I’m not sure how to explain that one because [it was my] first time over there—first time getting a drive there—and I was hoping to just get a cheque,” Sorrie said of his first victory at Woodbine Mohawk Park, driving his trainee Bugsy Maguire. “Like top three would be wicked. Then he goes out and wins.
"[The stretch] seemed real long that night because coming off the top of the turn, I flipped him out, I let him go, and I was like halfway down like ‘Alright, where’s the finish line at.’ I started to look and getting worried and was like ‘Alright, I watch a lot of races here. They always get picked off right at the wire. I don’t know if I’m far enough away or not.’”
With hopefully many years ahead of him, Sorrie says he has the same ambitions as anyone who drives racehorses to someday be the best. And in his pursuit to be the best, he hopes to someday win in his home province’s classic race: the Gold Cup and Saucer.
“The Gold Cup and Saucer. That’s the one I want to win,” Sorrie said. “Just the way the show goes. The grandstands are packed, like you can’t even walk through. And the lights go out and they put the spotlight on the horses as you watch them. It’s something I don’t think you’ll ever see before unless you go.”
Proud of the year he had by coming just nine wins shy of his 160-win goal, Sorrie said the news of his nomination for Rising Star of the Year—alongside trainer Rachel Andrew—did not hit him immediately.
“I got a phone call, I think it was 10:30 or something like that,” Sorrie said. “I was just waking up there, slept in a bit. So I was half asleep when I answered the phone and she goes ‘You’re a finalist’ and I went ‘Oh, okay.’ Never thought much of it. But then I got up and went and had a shower and I was like ‘I’m a finalist for the O’Brien Awards again. That’s cool.’”
Of his fellow nominee Andrew, Sorrie said “She works hard. She puts a lot of time into her horses. She cares about them a lot.”
The 2020 Virtual O’Brien Awards Gala takes place on Sunday, January 31, 2021 and will be available for viewing on standardbredcanada.ca from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. (EST).
The full COSA TV segment with Austin Sorrie is posted below: