Batavia: Gerry Sarama scores his 1,000th training victory

Western New York racing legend and former Grand Circuit driving star Gerry Sarama reached another career milestone after getting his 1,000th training victory with Ohio Prince in the 12th race at Batavia Downs.

Sarama has been around the sport his entire life as his father owned and raced horses. He started driving at an early age and quickly found himself at the top of the driver colony in western New York and won many driving titles at Batavia Downs.

Sarama made a move to Roosevelt Raceway in the late 1970's and successfully competed with the best in the nation on the biggest stage at the time, racing side-by-side with the likes of Carmine Abbatiello, Herve Filion, Billy Haughton and all the other great New York City reinsmen of that era. But he eventually found his way back to his roots and continued to be at the top of his game ever since. The one constant of Sarama's career regardless of what track he was competing at, he was always a highly sought-after catch-driver.

During his driving career, the now 78-year-old Sarama amassed 2,630 wins and bankrolled $11.5 million dollars. But he curtailed that activity in 2007 and turned his attention to training full time. Since doing so Sarama has found as much success in the jog cart as he did in the sulky. He currently oversees about 14 horses and since taking over conditioning duties full time, his stable has won in excess of $5.6 million. During his entire training career Sarama has made 6,153 starts with 1,000 wins, 931 seconds and 843 thirds giving him a .292 UTR.

-edited release (Tim Bojarski for Batavia Downs)