The following is part of an occasional USTA newsroom series that will recount favorite early memories of members of the harness racing community and their subsequent careers in the sport.

Ken Weingartner

Hightstown, NJ — It is somewhat appropriate that Father’s Day is Sunday because whenever Aaron Merriman speaks of the person most influential in his career, he is talking about his father, Lanny.

Merriman followed his father into harness racing, and did it step by step. For a while, Aaron was uncertain racing would be his career — he attended college briefly — but the allure of the horses proved too much. He got his first win in 1998, 10 days prior to his 20th birthday, and has added to that total at a record pace ever since.

The 44-year-old Merriman has won 14,815 races lifetime, which ranks fourth among all drivers in North American history. He has led the sport in victories each of the past eight years — the sport’s longest-ever streak — and is No. 1 again this season. He is one of only four drivers to win more than 1,000 races in a year, and the only one to do it more than once. He also has ranked among the top 10 in purses the past eight years.

“I would have never imagined it,” said Merriman, who was the 2018 U.S. Driver of the Year.

Aaron Merriman has won 14,815 races lifetime, which ranks fourth among all drivers in North American history. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

It began with a horse Lanny trained and drove named Rosemont Student, who joined the stable when Aaron was 15. Rosemont Student traveled the U.S. and Canada as a top-level pacer and occasional Grand Circuit competitor (including earning a check in the 1993 Breeders Crown Open Pace).

“My dad got along with the horse really well,” Merriman said. “He was a horse I really enjoyed watching. I remember him beating Shady Daisy one time at Scioto. It wasn’t that I thought I wanted to be a driver at that point, but he got me amped up for racing. He shipped everywhere, and it was just pretty cool.

“He was a very calm horse, very laidback. When he raced, he loved being first over, I remember that. He was very gutsy. He was just a really good horse.”

Merriman wasn’t working with his dad’s horses when Rosemont Student arrived, but the teenager eventually found his way into the stable.

“I didn’t jog or train, my dad made me do everything from scratch,” Merriman said. “I started out with stalls and equipment and went from there. It wasn’t like I just jumped on to be a driver, and I didn’t really want to at the time. I planned on going to college. It wasn’t really in the cards for me at the time.”

The first horse Merriman jogged on his own was Passthemall, a trotter in his dad’s barn. It was a memorable experience.

“My dad would jog with no handholds at that time,” Merriman said. “The horse ran off with me for two laps, and I took him off the track. My arms were burning when I got back to the barn, but I was kind of half-chuckling; I wasn’t upset.”

Merriman still chuckles when recalling the story.

“My dad said I should stay in the barn a little longer,” he added with a laugh. “It was probably a couple months before I jogged another horse, and that time I got a real easy one.”

Merriman made his first driving start in a purse race in 1997 with a horse he also trained, Knolls Vandelier. The pacer had been purchased for Merriman by his uncle Gary.

“He bought the horse with one of his co-workers and it kind of got me into taking care of them,” Merriman said. “It was a different approach, owning, and getting to work with the horse. He got me interested. He was a claimer, a nice horse. He had some issues, but he was a good horse to learn on. It definitely helped me.”

In 2000, Merriman drove in more than 1,000 races in a year for the first time, winning 182. In 2004, he topped 300 victories for the first time in a season, picked up his 1,000th career triumph, and enjoyed his first million-dollar campaign. One of the horses at the center of Merriman’s success that year was Northmedo Tam, a freshman female pacer that gave Aaron his first Ohio Sire Stakes championship.

“She had little or no gate speed,” Merriman said. “I would just move her early and she was real gritty and grindy, especially for a 2-year-old. She always just kind of kept coming. I got along with her well.”

Another key horse for Merriman at that time was top-level older female pacer Midnight Jewel.

“She was a good horse,” Merriman said. “She used to race in the open with the boys and beat them. Just having a horse like her was important, winning top races. She was kind of a national stalwart, and she brought me national attention driving her.”

For all Merriman has accomplished, though, his dad — who has 1,275 driving wins and 769 training victories — remains an impactful presence.

“He’s always been very constant; happy and positive,” Merriman said. “At the beginning of my career, it was hard to mimic that because I was still an immature young man. As I’ve got older and more experienced, it’s kind of come to me. If I have a bad race, a bad drive, it bothers me, but I can throw it away.

“And I admire his horsemanship. To this day, I call him if I have a question. If I have a horse I drive, and I’m trying to think of things to help them, I always ask his opinion. Everything kind of goes through him.

“He’s been the most important influence on me and my career. A hundred percent.”