Jimmy Marohn Jr. has been making a name for himself in the state of New York, but Saturday night he’ll be looking to establish himself on the sport’s biggest stage at Mohawk Racetrack.
Marohn Jr., 32, has been driving race horses for over 12 years, but in the $457,500 Fan Hanover Stakes, on the Pepsi North America Cup undercard, he will have the biggest drive of his career, leaving from post three with elimination winner Table Talk.
Marohn Jr. has been around the sport his entire life. His father Jimmy Marohn Sr. has been a prominent driver for decades in New York and New Jersey and his son Jimmy grew up by his side.
“I grew up around the horses, my dad had a barn when I was really small and he primarily catch drove at Roosevelt and Yonkers and I was always around the barn,” said Marohn Jr. “We had moved to New Jersey and then I was about five minutes from the Meadowlands and I got to cut my teeth on the backstretch there growing up.”
Marohn Sr. has won over 5,000 races in his career and he recorded many of his best seasons while his son was growing up.
Marohn Jr. always had the itch for racing, but knew for sure when he was a teenager, becoming a driver was the career path for him.
“I was always into sports my whole life,” said Marohn Jr., “but I would say about my later part of high school was when I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
Marohn Jr. immediately showed promise as a driver when he finished second in his first career drive at Pocono Downs with a pacer named External Heat. A little over a month later the two reunited to give Marohn Jr. his first pari-mutuel victory.
Since that first victory, Marohn Jr. has seen his star rise each racing season. The reinsman has made a name for himself over the years as a top driver at Colonial Downs, Tioga Downs and Monticello Raceway.
Last year, he captured his third straight Tioga Downs driving title and won the $25,000 Tioga/Vernon Drivers Challenge against some of the top reinsmen in the sport, including Tim Tetrick and Brian Sears.
A regular work week for Marohn Jr. is driving at Monticello Raceway Monday to Thursday and racing at Tioga Downs Friday to Sunday. The seven-day work week is tough on Marohn Jr. and his family, he admits.
“I’m on the road a lot, I’m home during the week, but then on the weekends I’ll go up to Tioga,” said Marohn Jr. “Being away from the family is tough, my wife and I just had a daughter and it’s tough to be away from her right now.”
The opportunity to drive horses like Table Talk in the Fan Hanover final, may open up doors for Marohn to not have to drive seven days a week and have the chance to fulfill a dream by racing on the Grand Circuit.
“I race everyday in overnights and I always go to the Sires Stakes whenever I get the opportunities too, but this is one of the ultimate dreams going around on the Grand Circuit.”
In the elimination, Marohn Jr. and Table Talk registered a 37-1 shocker. He noted his filly had some issues off the gate, but once she settled down at the quarter pole he knew he had a chance.
“Going to the five-eighths when the flow started, I was still sitting last and gapped about a length and a half. I was just kind of scoping things out to see what I was going to do, go into the flow or just sit the wood,” said Marohn Jr. “I decided to sit the wood going into the last turn and watching Precocious [Beauty] through the last turn when Doug [McNair] started to call on her