Jimmy Marohn Jr, Austin Siegelman, and Mark Herschberger dominated the 10-race card at Freehold Raceway on Friday (Sept. 13). Unwilling to share the winner’s circle with any other drivers, they earned five, three, and two harness racing wins, respectively.
Siegelman took the only stakes race on the card: leg one of the NJSS Standardbred Development Fund pace for three-year-old filly pacers.
An early break from the 1-9 favorite in the first turn left the rest of the race wide-open. Siegelman cashed in on the opportunity and piloted 16-1 shot I’m A Believer (Huntsville) to victory for Mark Ford and owner Robert Hirsch.
That was just the third lifetime victory in 35 starts for the daughter of Huntsville.
However, the hottest hands of the day were those of Marohn Jr’s.
He took control of the latter half of the card, winning the last four races of the day in addition to his win in race four. One of his victories included going from sixth to first to win at 8-1 odds, despite being two-wide for over 3/8 of a mile on the second lap. This was with Brian and Judy Magie’s homebred, Hold My Tiara (Aracache Hanover), in race seven.
HOLD MY TIARA REPLAY
Marohn’s other four wins were of the wire-to-wire fashion, though his competition never made it easy on him. His backers were holding their breath in race four as competition closed in on Marohn and Paul Stratton trainee, Sprout (Artspeak) in the stretch for an exciting finish where five horses blanketed across the track to finish within ¾ of a length within Marohn, who ultimately held on for the win.
This brings Marohn’s win percentage at Freehold this year to a remarkable 26.0% and is his third day scoring four or more wins since the new meet began less than a month ago on August 23.
For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.
by Katie Eick, for Freehold Raceway