Tyler Borth demonstrated his ability as a major event driver in his maiden Regional Driving Championship appearance on Tuesday, April 23, at The Raceway at the Western Fair District in London, Ontario, by winning the 2024 Ontario Regional Driving Championship (ORDC).
Borth led the standings with 71 points, followed in second place by James MacDonald (59). These two drivers will compete in the 2024 National Driving Championship on Friday, July 5 at Hippodrome 3R in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
Borth completed five top-pairing tasks and won two of his eight driving assignments on Tuesday. The only other driver with multiple ORDC leg victories was MacDonald (2).
Borth's wins were in the third leg (1:59.1; $8.70) with experienced pacer Devils Peak, age 10; and in the fifth leg (1:59.2; $12.20, shown above) with nine-year-old trotter I am What I Am. Though Borth led the race from the second ORDC leg onwards, he did not run a pari-mutuel favourite in the race.
"Going into the last race, I didn't really know where the standings were at," Borth noted after his ORDC victory. "A couple of people told me I had it all wrapped up, but I thought I had a good shot. I thought the race would set up the way it set up, and I figured if I got away in the two holes that I would finish second and then that would wrap it up."
Tyler Borth, the Driver of the Year for Western Fair the previous two seasons, entered 2024 fresh off of his best year to date in the industry, having earned over $4.3 million and 414 victories in 2023. The inhabitant of Ingersoll, Ontario, resident, who took the Future Star Award at the 2014 O'Brien Awards, has also made some progress at Woodbine Mohawk Park, where he is presently ranked fifth overall in the driver's standings.
Just as he ended 2023, Borth had 114 driving victories, good for second position in the country going into the 2024 ORDC. His $1.25 million in purses placed him third among Canadian drivers.
Following his triumph, the humble horseman remarked, "I've gone so far in my career very fast lately, and it just seems to be going up and up for me. It's surprising, you know? I never thought it would go as fast as it has."
James MacDonald, who was crowned the 2017 World Driving Champion and Canada's best teamster the previous three seasons, is no stranger to these contests, having won the Keith Waples Driver of the Year award.
"Everyone drives so hard and it's always great to come out and be one of the ones to advance," said MacDonald. "It's a lot of luck and a lot of [having] the horses showing up to play for you that night. I've won these, I finished last in these so just to move on I'm really happy, and really happy for Tyler. He did a great job."