by Evan Pattak, for the Meadows

Washington, PA — The Meadows Racetrack & Casino and the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association on Wednesday (March 2) honored driver Aaron Merriman, who collected the 8,000th win of his career Tuesday (March 1) at Northfield Park.

Chris Gooden photo

Aaron Merriman was honored in the winner’s circle on March 2 at The Meadows.

For Merriman, 37, an Ohio native, the milestones have been piling up quickly. He notched win number 6,000 in October 2013 and reached 7,000 in January 2015. Thus, he’s rolled up his most recent 1,000 victories in only 13 months.

“The milestones seem to be coming one right after the other,” Merriman said. “But they’re always milestones to me. I celebrate them, even if it’s only in my thoughts and feelings.”

In recent years, Merriman, harness racing’s “winningest” driver in 2015, has been competing at The Meadows by day and Northfield by night, a pace that’s contributed to the rapid-fire rise in his win total. But he often drives two cards per day and logs many frantic highway miles, a performance that’s earned him a number of speeding citations. He expects to keep double-dipping for the foreseeable future.

“It’s actually better for me when Northfield and The Meadows race the same day,” he said. “When the cards are piggy-backed like that, I get two full days off. That really helps. I know I can’t do this forever, but now is the time to do it.”

The gregarious Merriman once confided to an interviewer that if he weren’t driving Standardbreds, his dream job would be that of a U.S. Postal Service carrier because he would get to interact with so many people. Reminded of that just before his 8,000th win, he said he’d never qualify for that job now because of all those traffic tickets. He appreciates the irony.

“I couldn’t get my dream job because of my driving record,” he said.