When Bruce Ranger went gate to wire with HS Shauna in the sixth race at Plainridge Park on Tuesday (May 9), he became only the 19th driver in the history of harness racing to reach the 10,000-win plateau.
The milestone victory came as the third of the afternoon for Ranger, who put an exclamation point on his big day with a grand slam in the bike.
A native of Portland, Maine, the 63-year-old Ranger started his driving career in 1979 at the Skowhegan Fair where he scored his first victory. From there, his career path went through Massachusetts at both Foxboro and Plainridge Park as well as Florida, where he was a legendary star and the all-time dash win leader at Pompano Park.
Ranger “momentarily retired” in 2015 because his aches and pains from many years at the lines seemed to catch up to him and he became a starting judge in Maine. But after being out of the sulky for three years, he felt physically refreshed and regained the desire to go from riding in the starting car, to getting back behind it. He returned to action at Scarborough Downs in the fall of 2018 and he’s been on a roll ever since.
Since climbing back into the bike, Ranger has been competing at every track in Maine along with being a regular at Plainridge Park, where he is the two-time defending dash title winner in 2021 and 2022 and has averaged $2 million in earnings.
At the current Plainridge meet, Ranger is once again the leading dash driver with 19 wins out of 109 starts, with 15 seconds and 17 thirds that put $235,265 in the bank. Overall this year, he has 191 starts with 36 wins, 34 seconds and 31 thirds and $315,370 in earnings to date.
Ranger’s overall career numbers are eye-popping. When the dust settled Tuesday, he now boasts 49,064 starts with 10,001 wins, 7,851 seconds and 6,378 thirds with earnings just shy of the $44-million mark, depositing exactly $43,981,252 into his owners accounts. His win total puts him 19th on the North American all-time driving wins list with only 14 drivers ahead of him who are still active.
Ranger has won in excess of $1 million during a single season 18 times in his career, including 13 straight from 1998 to 2010, and just missed doing it in four other campaigns. He has also won in excess of $2 million in purses five times including $2.4 million in 2021 and $2.5 million in 2022, which were his two most prolific all-time earning efforts. And despite all the starts, Ranger has always been a very high percentage driver and has a career UDR of .337.
Aside from the many driving titles Ranger has earned over the years, he has also been honoured with enshrinement in the United States Harness Writers Association’s New England and Florida Chapter’s Hall of Fame.
Ranger’s other wins on Tuesday included another gate-to-wire effort with Probert ($4.20 to win) in the featured $25,000 Winners-Over Pace for fillies and mares in a new lifetime clocking of 1:50.4. Probert is owned by Howard Jacobs, Jim Winske and Marcus Kemblowski and is trained by Melissa Beckwith, who also conditioned Ranger’s 10,000th winner, HS Shauna.
Ranger’s grand slam was completed with Colt Bennett (1:54.1 winning mile, $6.40) and Fox Valley Hadley (1:54.4, $7.40).
When live harness racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Thursday at 4 p.m. (EDT), there will be a $3,896 carryover in the Jackpot Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in Race 6 and a $760 carryover in the Bay State Pick 6 in Race 4.
(Plainridge Park)