Austin Hanners can look back on his 2025 running season and bask in the fact that he won the three biggest races of his career to date, including a Breeders Crown, but that won’t change his focus going forward.
The 26-year-old Hanners captured his first Breeders Crown with Always B Naughty in the $400,000 Grade 1 Breeders Crown Mare Pace on Oct. 25 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, captured his first Ohio Sire Stakes championship with Jailhouse Pearl in the $300,000 final for 3-year-old trotting fillies on Sept. 27 at Hollywood Dayton Raceway, and won the $ 250,000 Charlie Hill Memorial Trot (G2) with Hillexotic on September 6 at Eldorado Scioto Downs.
In total, Hanners won 205 races and earned $4.31 million in purses, which was just $44,645 short of his career high in 2024 despite making 401 fewer starts.
“It was a good year,” said Hanners, who lives in south-central Ohio. “I’m grateful for all the opportunities I was given. The Breeders Crown and Charlie Hill were definitely highlights, along with winning my first sire stakes final. I had won another big race (in 2024), the Pacey Mindlin Memorial in Miami Valley, but winning the Hill at Scioto was a lot of fun. That’s home and it was my first big, big win. The Breeders Crown topped it all off.”
Hanners started driving in 2016, made seventeen starts and saw his workload gradually increase from then on. He competed in more than 1,000 races for the first time in 2022, racing 1,618 times, and had his first million-dollar season that same year, collecting $1.42 million in purses. He has more than 200 wins over the past three seasons and earned more than $3.2 million in purses. His consecutive $4 million campaigns placed him among the top 30 drivers nationally both years.
“I hope I keep getting better,” Hanners said. “I know a lot of people say that, but it really is. Looking at how far I’ve come in such a short time – I remember having my first million-dollar season a few years ago – and now I’ve had three straight years where I’ve done triple that. To say I thought I’d get there that quickly would be a lie, but I definitely hoped I could get there. It’s happened a lot faster and I hope I can stay in that category and just keep improving.”
As for what he would like to improve, Hanners said: “I just want to get better at driving horses in general.”
“Our colony is so strong that you always have to be on your guard,” Hanners said. “I just want to learn more, be a student of the game and get better every day. I feel like if you’re not getting better, what’s the point of being there. If you feel like you’ve learned everything, you’re way off.”
“I watch a lot of races, wherever they are. If I’m not in a race, I never miss one. I’m always watching, trying to learn, trying to pick up something different.”
Hanners’ victory in the Breeders Crown with Always B Naughty marked only his second start in a Breeders Crown final. Always B Naughty won by 5-1/4 lengths in a record 1:48.1.
“She just peaked at the right time,” Hanners said. “She was so powerful that night, just like the week before (she won an Open for fillies and mares at Mohawk in 1:48.2). It was a great way for her to get sharp for the right race.
“During the stretch I could see myself on the (infield) TV and I didn’t hear anyone else behind me; I knew she had a good lead. The feeling was incredible. But it didn’t really hit me until after the race and it was all over. People work there all year round. It was just great to win a race like that.”
Always B Naughty’s triumph also earned trainer Todd Luther and owner Greg Luther their first Breeders Crown trophy.
“They were on Cloud Nine as much as I was,” Hanners said.
Hanners enjoyed numerous other successes at Lutheran, including winning the Hill Memorial with Hillexotic and an Ohio Breeders Championship with 3-year-old pacing filly Prolific Fire, and finishing third in the $600,000 Breeders Crown for second-year pacing fillies with Skywalker Sea.
“It worked out well,” Hanners said. “I ride the majority of the stakes horses; all in Ohio and wherever we can fit out of state. It doesn’t always work out early in the year, but when we slow down (in Ohio), I get to travel on the Grand Circuit with the older horses, which is a lot of fun. It’s a place I never thought I would get to. It was one of those great rides.”
Where that ride goes in 2026 will be determined as this season unfolds. Hanners starts his year on Wednesday with seven rides at Miami Valley Raceway.
“My main focus will be on Ohio, and if other things happen, that will happen,” Hanners said. “If not, we just try to take it one day at a time and see where we go. I try to take it one day at a time because it all happens so quickly.”
Through Ken Weingartnerfor the USTA
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