Driver Jim Morrill Jr. achieved another major milestone in his stellar career on Monday (Feb. 13) at Batavia Downs when he drove Sportskeeper ($4.70) to an easy gate-to-wire 1:56 1/5 victory in the seventh race to achieve his 8,000th lifetime win in the sulky. Morrill Jr. would also win with Gorgeous View (1:58 3/5, $7.00) and Silver Buckeye (2:00 2/5, $8.40) for the hat trick to put an exclamation mark on his landmark day. At the end of business Monday, Morrill Jr. had 42,173 starts with 8,002 wins, 6,594 seconds and 5,413 thirds and $112,388,888 in earnings for his tenure in the sport. That purse total puts him 21st on the all-time earnings list among all drivers in North America. So far in 2023 Morrill Jr. has a UDR of .496 and sits in second among all drivers in North America with less than 300 starts so far this year. And at the current Batavia Downs meet, Morrill Jr. is the leading UDR driver (.496) and sits second for wins (22) and earnings ($135,240). Morrill Jr. reached 7,500 wins just two years and three months ago in 2020 at Batavia, and it only took him 1,850 starts to get those next 500 wins. A native of Methuen, Massachusetts, Morrill Jr. had aspirations of playing in the National Hockey League after being a junior hockey star prior to his career in harness racing, and those who know him would attest he was good enough to achieve that goal. But Morrill Jr. chose to follow in his father's footsteps and made his first driving start at Foxboro Park in 1984. The family's operation eventually moved to Rosecroft Raceway where Morrill Jr. began getting many catch drives and soon found himself in high demand. In 1990 Morrill Jr. went to New York and started driving for Ray Schnittker and George Anthony at Yonkers Raceway, and, with all the success he had there, decided that move would be long term. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter During his time competing on the Metropolitan circuit, Morrill Jr. recalled his most memorable race as being the 2004 Meadowlands Pace where Holborn Hanover was a 58-1 upset winner in 1:49 to equal the stakes mark. Among his other notable wins are three Breeders Crown finals with See You At Peelers, Won The West and Yellow Diamond, and the 2012 Yonkers Trot with Archangel. After 15 years of driving at the highest level of competition, Morrill Jr. left the big city in 2005 and relocated his family and business to western New York. Since arriving on scene there, he has not only been at the very top of the local driver colony, but also became a dominant force in the New York Sire Stakes. In 2006 at Batavia Downs, Morrill set the all-time driving standard with 177 wins and a UDR of .537 for one meet. He also co-holds the track mark for most driving wins on one card (seven) and just last year, became the first driver to ever surpass $1 million in purse earnings in a single season at Batavia Downs. --press release (Batavia)--