by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Jimmy Marohn, Jr. is working on a career year.

What he just came to realize through a recent interviewer’s question, is that he is also working on surpassing the career year of his mentor — Jimmy Marohn, Sr.

“I don’t know, maybe it could happen,” Marohn Jr. said. “We do have a friendly rivalry, it’s a good conversation around the dinner table.

“You just always want to improve on your own accomplishments each year. I never really looked at it like that — to have a better year than my father had in his best year. You just put an idea in my head,” he added with a laugh.

The Marohn men do indeed have a marvelous rivalry and have both had successful careers. Though his trips have slowed in recent years, the 65-year-old dad is still in the sulky and trying to add to a career in which he has won 5,314 races.

Monticello photo

Jimmy Marohn, Jr. is on pace to improve on the career best numbers he posted in 2009.

His 30-year-old son has 1,768 wins and $8,752,153 in purse winnings entering Wednesday. Jimmy Jr.’s best season was in 2009 when he won 257 races, had 219 seconds and 217 thirds — all career highs. He won $1,394,082 that year, also a personal best.

He is ahead of that pace this year and is currently the leading driver in both wins and earnings at Tioga Downs and is third in both wins and money at Monticello Raceway.

Marohn entered this season with a goal of breaking 300 wins for the first time and appears to be on schedule with 164 firsts and $599,128 in money winnings. His dad’s best years included 334 wins in 1990 and $2,335,750 in earnings in 1981.

Whether Junior can surpass dad’s top numbers remains to be seen, but he appears headed for his own new personal standards.

“This year has been really good,” Marohn said. “I started off the year well, and kind of just kept rolling. I find myself more focused now than I have been earlier in my career.”

Marohn’s focus has led to better mental preparation.

“I just see myself following things more now than I have before,” he said. “I’m studying more of the horses than I have before. I’m driving for more trainers so I guess you have to do that because you’re dealing with more horses.”

Because it was his dad’s profession, Marohn has grown up around the racing game. But his desire to follow in Senior’s footsteps did not surface for a while.

“The game was always in front of me,” Jimmy said. “I did always follow it. I loved watching my dad race and always followed other drivers. But I never wanted to go into it as a career until maybe late in high school.”

During his early high school years, the New Jersey product’s first love was baseball and hockey. He grew up as a shortstop and played the position in high school and at SUNY Morrisville, where he majored in equine science. He also played club hockey out of sheer love for the sport.

Near the end of high school, he began to focus on the family business.

“It clicked with me late in high school,” he said. “Being competitive and already having a foot in the door, this was the way I wanted to go.

“My parents never pushed me at all. I definitely chose it on my own. They were there to help with the decision, but never forced it on me.”

Marohn debuted with five non-purse starts in 2001. He had his first money-winning year in 2002 (10 firsts, $41,071); won 73 times ($371,676) in 2003 and had a breakthrough year with 133 wins and $739,154 in purse winnings in ’04.

Aside from 2007, he has not had less than 1,258 starts and won less than 170 races or $897,000 ever since. He’s working on his fourth straight year of more than $1 million in purse winnings.

“I guess earning and winning go hand in hand with each other,” Marohn said. “I just really go out and do the best I can wherever I am.”

Naturally, his father has provided valuable advice.

“He told me how to keep your calm and be patient,” Jimmy said. “But the biggest tip he’s given me throughout my career — and it’s always something I keep playing verbatim over and over in my head — is that you keep turning the page, race after race.

“You can’t get hung up too many times about when you might make a mistake or if things don’t go your way. You just have to take it race by race. I constantly see that every day.”

His background in baseball, a grind-it-out sport if there ever was one, helps in that mindset.

“I tell people, sometimes racing is just like how a batter gets in the batter’s box,” Marohn said. “You do it 500 times a year. You’ll come out on top sometimes and sometimes you don’t. You get back in the box the next time.”

Marohn says going to the track is not like going to the office. It’s more like heading to the playground.

“I really enjoy going to whatever track I’m at,” he said. “I get to go and race and compete. It’s just me out there and I really like to compete. I don’t take it like a task. Some days are just better than others.”

He doesn’t list any real highlights in his career, saying “I haven’t won anything really good. Nothing prestigious. They’re all overnights. I would love to latch on to a horse that could get me into some of the bigger races.”

There have been a few big personal races. Some have come when Marohn won on horses he has a stake in. Others, of course, have been when Jimmy Marohn, Sr. is in the same race. It happens on occasion at Monticello.

“It’s always something special when you race against your dad,” Marohn said. “At least it is for us, it gives us conversations to talk about later. It always makes me chuckle.

“He races there three or four days a week, he’s slowing down. He wants to get a barn for himself, just train some horses to run in the Yonkers area. He’ll take a couple days off but he can’t sit in the house too long.”

Seeing as his dad has lasted this long, Marohn is hoping he has a long career still ahead of him.

“The way I feel right now, because I’m still kind of young, I can see myself driving at that age,” he said. “As long as I can be as competitive as I am now, I’ll keep doing it.”

After all, he not only wants to beat his own marks now, but another Jimmy Marohn’s as well.