LEBANON, Ohio – When Becky Woebkenberg gets behind the wheel of their white Ford F-150, her husband Mike gets in the back seat, turns completely around, and looks out the rear window.

This is nothing against Becky’s driving record. It’s just how things are done when you’re the driver of a harness racing pace car and your husband is the official starter. While Becky steers the truck around the racetrack, Mike looks the opposite way, works the accelerator and operates the long, wing-like gates that stretch out from each side of the vehicle. Eight to 10 horses are at this gate, ready to compete in a mile run.

“My job as a starter is to make sure we have the right number of horses out on the track, heading in the right direction and all have the correct saddle pads on,” Mike said. “Then, I have to get them to gate without incident. Getting horses to the gate is like herding cats.”

As the drivers finish warming up their horses (just a minute before post time), Becky puts the truck into drive and heads to the center of the backstretch. Mike shouts “OK gentlemen, bring ’em in,” letting the drivers know it’s time for them to guide their horses slowly toward the moving gate.

While all are in line, Mike takes over using an accelerator from his perch to pull away from the field. As he does so, the gates contract and Becky steers the vehicle to the outside of the track.

“I judge the speed by the sound of the horses’ feet,” he said. “When you train a horse, you learn how fast you’re going by the sound of the feet and I’ve retained that. Once at the gate, we have to have the starting gate going fast enough not to jam them, but not too fast that they can’t catch me. And no two races are the same. Each race is different because of the quality of the horses.”

By the time the starting gates fold in and the race officially begins, the field is moving along at 35 miles per hour. The truck is then driven to the outside of the track, where it continues to flank the field from 20 feet away throughout the race. As Becky steers the truck on the perimeter of the oval, Mike is looking to make sure there are no miscues or fouls during that two-minute race.

Mike and Becky’s roots and love for horses began on the farm. Mike is a third-generation horseman and farmer. He grew up on a farm in Lebanon in the 1950s, just two miles from the Miami Valley Gaming racetrack. Becky grew up on a farm in Preble County in Ohio.

Mike has been in the harness racing industry his entire life. He started showing Pleasure Drawing Ponies at the Great Cincinnati Horse Show at age 6 along with racing harness ponies in the early 1960s. Being a third-generation horse racing family enabled Mike to be the youngest standardbred driver in the country by 1967.

By the time he was 16 he began showing horses for customers, and with the money he saved he was able to pay for his tuition at Ohio State University. After college, Mike began racing horses and showing them in the afternoons for customers. His first drive occurred at Lebanon Raceway in Lebanon.

One day a customer couldn’t pay him and offered his two racing carts as payment. Mike fixed the two carts and sold them. Having a minor in economics he quickly realized the market for horse carts, and Superior Sulky was born. His sulkies have been sold to people all over the world, including leading horse trainers, showmen and even movie stars. Sulkies made by Mike are used by harness drivers across the country.

Mike was able to learn the mechanics of how a horse travels and the importance of a balanced cart, or sulky. His shop for constructing precision sulkies is in downtown Farmersville, Ohio.

One day a friend had him paint some mobile starting gates for him. As payment, the friend gave him a starting gate unit and suggested he try starting races at a few county fairs. Great idea, Mike thought.

“I needed a driver to help me and Becky volunteers. It exploded from there,” Mike said.

He now builds and refurbishes sulkies, and makes starting gates attached to trucks.

This duo is the starter of harness races at Miami Valley Gaming in Lebanon, Hollywood Dayton Raceway in Dayton, and 46 of the 66 county fairs in Ohio and that have pari-mutuel racing.

“It’s the most exciting 30 seconds in sports that nobody gets to see,” Mike said, referring to his unique view from his back seat perch.

Woebkenberg said he and his wife start roughly 5,000 races a year and they’ve been doing it for 33 years.

The Woebkenbergs are busy year-round. In addition to the many racing circuits in the Midwest, they also service every county fair in Indiana.

“Ohio has the largest fair racing program in the world for standardbred racing,” Mike said. “And there are more horses bred in Ohio than in Kentucky.”

In addition to being a former driver, he performs blacksmith duties between races.

“Tracks don’t want to hire a farrier at the track, one who might shoe maybe just one horse and get paid $175 for an entire evening of races,” he said. “Most farriers don’t want to sit around all evening, so since I’ve got the experience, I just lend a hand when they need it.”