Harness Racing: Marohn family dead-heat for win at Monticello

It was just another lazy early spring afternoon at Monticello Raceway with 10 races carded and nothing unusual happening until lightning struck .

The lightning referred to was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence when a father and son finished in a dead-heat for win in the ninth race.

Jimmy Marohn, Sr. was driving Quiet Hero (#1) from the pole position while Jimmy Jr. had Best Of Times (#5) from post five.

As the gate sprung, young Jimmy went right for the front and had the lead at the quarter in :29. From there the younger Marohn kept the pedal to the metal and was never seriously challenged until his dad got Quiet Hero in high gear as the field headed from home.

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Pop Marohn came charging at his son’s pacer and both horses finished simultaneously with Pop’s pacer getting up in time to tie his son’s pacer at the finish in a final time of 1:59 3/5.

“I won the St. Paddy Pace with this horse a couple of weeks ago by racing him on the front-end so I thought that I’d race him in front again today and hopefully that would get the job done,” Jimmy Jr. said after the race was completed.

“But the old man out-foxed me; he laid back and came charging at the end and so fast that I thought he won the race. I even said to him on the track, 'you got it’ and then I went directly back to the paddock."

Jimmy Sr. headed to the winner's circle with Quiet Hero for a photograph and it wasn’t until he got there and saw the posted order of finish on the tote board that he found out that there was a dead-heat for win.

And when he got back to the paddock he was reached for a comment which he gave with tongue in cheek.

“I even gave him (Jimmy, Jr.) a head start but I got him at the end,” the older Marohn chirped before continuing, "and it’s hard to give him an inch and beat him in a horse race, you know."

Then he got serious and added, “We drive together in the same races often here at Monticello and over the years we’ve finished first and second quite a few times but a father and son finishing in a dead-heat has gotta be a first.”

Quiet Hero is owned by Frank Cuccio of Montgomery, NY and trained by his son Anthony Cuccio while Best Of Times is owned by J & R Class Act Stable of Yonkers, NY and trained by Anthony Regina. The former paid $7.50 for win while the later returned a $9.20 win mutuel.

Although records are hazy on father-son dead-heat wins, Pat and Mike Lachance finished in a dead-heat for win on December 11 2002 at the Meadowlands. Topping that, Luke and Rick Plano did it twice in one month back in 2005 at Cal Expo.

-edited release (John Manzi)