by Shawn Wiles, for Monticello Raceway

Monticello, NY — The new dynasty of Bruce Aldrich Jr. and Bob Lounsbury has begun at Monticello Raceway. For the second consecutive year both Aldrich and Lounsbury captured their respective categories for leading driver and trainer at The Mighty M.

Geri Schwarz photo

Bruce Aldrich Jr. and Bob Lounsbury receive their awards from Shawn Wiles.

Bruce Aldrich Jr. took the leading driver title by virtue of his 390 wins and purses of $1,163,520 at Monticello Raceway. He also ranked fourth in North America with 663 wins and compiled $3.36 million in purses. Bruce splits his time between Monticello and Saratoga; he was also the leading driver at Saratoga with 273 wins.

James Taggart Jr. was runner-up with 277 wins. Taggart did most of the driving for leading trainer Robert Lounsbury. Larry Stalbaum was third with 220 wins, 2013 leading dash winner James Marohn Jr. finished the year with 200 trips to the winner’s circle and rounding out the top five was Jason Ryan (199).

Taggart had the most starts in the driving colony with 1,539.

Monticello Raceway’s Rising Star Award winner Shawn Simons finished the year with respectable numbers of 18 wins and a UDR of .193.

On the training side of the slate, Robert Lounsbury won the leading trainer title and earned $469,272 in purses. Lounsbury was also the leading percentage (.525 UTR) trainer in North America with 500 starts or more. The Lounsbury Stable led the pack with 183 winners for the year, 56 wins more than runner-up Kim Asher of the powerful Larry Stalbaum Stable who was second with 127. Dan Gill (103), Gary Messenger (90) and Bruce Aldrich (45) rounded out the top five.

Lounsbury also led the field as leading percentage trainer (with 100 starts or more) with a UTR of .569, followed by Mike Watson (.545), Jennifer Lappe (.488), David Russo (.477) and Kimberley Asher (.460).