Monticello, NY – Kyle DiBenedetto notched a career milestone on July 30, by winning his 7,000th win aboard Soprese in 1:59 – $13.00 at Monticello Raceway. It was only fitting that he achieved the landmark at the track where he honed his driving skills in his formative years.
The 58-year-old reins men, who lives and trains at a stable in Honesdale, PA, started his driving career in 1981. In his 44-year career he has amassed total purses of $26,001,004 in 54,928 starts with 7,949 second place finishes and finished third 7,946 times, with a current UDRS of .256. For the last few months Kyle has been on fire, he won six races in one day earlier in the week. Kyle’s accession was rather quick, in just five years he was getting to the winners circle with frequency, winning 158 races in 1986. Kyle was born in Freehold, NJ, his father Bill DiBenedetto was a trainer at Freehold and Monticello for decades. Kyle schooled his first horse as a twelve-year-old and won his first ever drive aboard Fairsafe Lobell at Hinsdale in 2:06.
In his four-decade long career, he is a past five-time Monticello Raceway and two-time Pocono Downs leading dash winning driver. His overall best year was 2009 when he won $1,229,938 and 272 driving wins. He has broken the million-dollar mark three times. 2002 was his best driving year when he had 307 trips to the winners circle. Currently Kyle is the fourth leading dash winner at the Mighty M, with 90 wins. Kyle and Jackie Mo are the only two drivers to win a race at the Meadowlands before they were 20 and after they were 50.
While looking back on his career Kyle said, “it’s been a tough grind, you always feel like you could be thirty days out of the business, the driving colony at Monticello is a tough bunch of guys, I am just glad I can continue to do what I love.”