Over the last year or so, Caitlin Clark has made women’s basketball front-page news, first as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes, and now as point guard with the Indiana Fever. To fans of horse racing I ask, Is Brett Beckwith the Caitlin Clark of harness racing?

They are virtually the same age (Clark 22, Beckwith 21). They both participate in sports overshadowed by higher-profile, similar competition. They both set eye-catching records. 

And  the word on the backstretch at Saratoga Harness is that it’s only a matter of time before Beckwith has a national profile as a preeminent driver. 

Beckwith grew up at the racetrack; his mother, Melissa, is a prominent trainer, his father Mark a successful driver. And the pedigree goes back even further: Melissa’s father, Jerry Silverman, is a Hall of Fame trainer, her brother a trainer/driver, and Mark’s father and grandfather were both harness horsemen. 

Yet while growing up in Saratoga Springs, Beckwith showed little interest in joining the family business. He played basketball for the Blue Streaks and had an eye on college.

“I wanted to study computer science,” he says. “I was a little bit of a nerd.”

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