Jim Marohn, Jr. loves to race anywhere

Trenton, NJ — When you talk about a guy who puts in a good day’s work, as the saying goes, driver Jim Marohn Jr. may be the classic example when it comes to harness racing.

The 41-year-old has had lifetime hopes of hooking up with a big barn that would provide some opportunities in major stakes races, but that has been somewhat elusive throughout his 22-year career.

“It just never formulated for me,” Marohn said. “It’s something I always wanted to do.”

The fact he hasn’t done so has hardly deterred the New Jerseyite, who finds the thrill of harness racing as new and exciting as he did when he got his first win in 2002. Racing in mainly overnights, Marohn has won titles at numerous tracks around the country, most recently at Freehold last season. He has garnered 5,522 career victories and his horses have collected $46.1 million in purses.

“To go anywhere and win races, it’s fun,” Marohn said. “I was shooting the (breeze) with Ray Schnittker about a month ago. He follows everything, he says ‘I know they don’t go for a lot of money (at Freehold) but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to win races, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah. It’s fun to go out there and win.’”

With 12 race cards remaining before Freehold’s summer break begins in late May, Jim is again the track’s leading driver with 65 wins and a 28.5%-win percentage. To claim the title again would certainly be nice but winning it for the first-time last year had a truly special meaning for the Park Ridge, N.J. resident.

“It would be really great to do it again,” said Marohn, who is one of the few drivers to lead the standings at Freehold and The Meadowlands, which he accomplished in 2018, in their career. “I really enjoyed doing it last year. Growing up in Jersey like I did, it kind of meant something to me. I just put my head down and tried to do the best I could, and I wound up on top.

“It might not have been interesting to people who didn’t grow up in New Jersey. But me, growing up in New Jersey, Freehold, The Meadowlands and Yonkers is all I watched. So, it meant something to me. It was a feather in my hat.”

And when it comes to wearing that feather, Marohn says there is not a magic potion that makes it so.

“There’s no secret to success,” he said. “I show up, do the best I can with what I have, and I take it from there. It helps that I get to drive some good horses down there. Scottie Di Domenico and Edwin Quevedo race a lot there and do well. They bring horses that fit there.”

Although he enjoys success close to home, Marohn has always been a grinder. He will travel anywhere and race as much as possible. Last year his 2,050 starts were his least in a non-Covid year since 2014, but that was not done intentionally.

“I didn’t race at Pocono as much last year,” he said. “My starts are down at Yonkers the past couple years. It’s just been light over there. I’m one of those guys, whenever I go to the races, I want to be in eight, nine, 10 races a night. I don’t like going there for two or three.”

He has, however, stopped driving all over the place.

“I cut back on that,” Marohn said. “I concentrate mostly on Yonkers (where he has been a top-eight driver the past several years). I go to Freehold, because Freehold fits with Yonkers. I can race Freehold on the weekends during the day and still make it to Yonkers at night.”

And on weekdays, he will do Pocono by day and Yonkers by night, although he will race more at the New York track.

“It’s a little slow at Yonkers now, I’m hoping in the summer things will pick up,” he said. “If I get opportunities to go to The Meadowlands, I’ll take them. There’s a lot of stake races there during the summer, which is great to go to, but you gotta get the opportunities for it.”

Asked to name his best-loved track, Mahron was quick to tag The Big M.

“I can’t put my finger on a favorite track other than The Meadowlands,” he said. “There’s no place like it. It’s still the place that everybody watches. We go for more money and race more days at Yonkers every night, but everybody still watches and knows what’s going on at The Meadowlands.”

Jim will race at his home mecca whenever possible; but the beauty of Marohn is his love for the sport transcends the backdrop in which it takes place. If he’s in a sulky and a horse is pulling it, he’s happy at any track.

“I grew up playing sports, sports were my life,” Marohn said. “This is actually the sport I grew up in. Every day you go to race it’s different. Even when you can read the program and kind of think how you’re gonna map out a race, it goes differently. There’s a big adrenaline rush as you’re out there. There’s no better feeling than winning a race. It’s just what keeps me going back every day.”

And while he has cut back on his longer road trips, Marohn still keeps a busy schedule year-round. Considering he has two young children — 9-year-old Gianna and 2-year-old James — Jim feels blessed to be with his wife, Christie.

“If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be able to race as much as I could,” he said. “I try to concentrate on work as much as I can. She works fulltime too, and she holds everything together.”

Which keeps Jim able to focus on what he has loved since he was a kid.

“I’m an every-day-of-the-week harness racing enthusiast,” he said. “I watch whatever I can watch. I always make myself available to go wherever I can to race.”

It’s called a good day’s work, and Marohn does it as well as anyone.

by Rich Fisher, for the USTA