It was an action-packed Saturday at Freehold Raceway on March 16.

The day started with a tour of the paddock for Monmouth County’s Equine Science 4-H group who got to learn about harness racing. They saw the behind the scenes of the paddock and ate lunch in the paddock kitchen. Then they went over to the grandstand to see the action up close and join in a winner’s circle photo. Finally, they went up to the judges’ booth to learn about that aspect of the industry.

Assisting with the tour and answering questions about racing from the group was Jessica Paquette, the announcer at Parx Racing. Paquette was able to offer her insights from the Thoroughbred world to the 4-H members.  Paquette received the call to visit Freehold Raceway on Saturday to guest-announce and conduct interviews for the International Women’s Day festivities taking place later on the card. It was a perfect day to show the 4-H group (which happened to be composed entirely of girls) around and highlight the wonderful women in the racing industry.

Paquette took over the mic for her first Standardbred race calls starting in race seven, which was the Irish Heritage Race sponsored by Peter and Mary Grandich, in honour of Irish Joe Hanney. The drivers in this race were all of Irish heritage and randomly assigned to their mounts.

It was pacer Gold Star Yoder and driver Jim Marohn Jr. who went wire-to-wire in 1:58.1 in this race just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Peter Grandich, Irish Joe and all of the Irish drivers joined Marohn in the winner’s circle, along with New York Jets greats Joe Klecko and Marty Lyons, who were in attendance for a meet-and-greet with fans.

They weren’t the only ones celebrating this win, though. Gold Star Yoder was formerly trained by Dennis Watson, a longtime trainer and driver at Freehold Raceway (among other tracks) who recently passed away on March 4, 2024 at the age of 74. When Watson's health declined, the horse was transferred to the Joe Gulotta stable. Watson's family, including many of his grandchildren, came out to the track following Watson's service this morning to cheer 'Yoder' on. It was all too perfect that Gold Star Yoder would pick up his first win of the year on this day, with his former trainer’s beloved family there to root for him.

To make things even more exciting for the Watson family, another former Watson trainee, Lyons Steel (now trained by Jose Ramos), won the following race, the feature Preferred Handicap Pace, in 1:53. On an emotional day for the Watson family, the horses seemed to know that they were winning in honour of Dennis and stood patiently as they were surrounded by his family for win photos.

The following race was the International Women’s Day race. Madeliene Young, an accomplished driver from Australia, made her first start in the United States in this race. She left from post five with 9-2 shot Matters Most on a mission to take the lead, which she did by the time they exited the first turn. From there, she never looked back and opened up on the field. Though the other female competitors made up some ground in the stretch, it wasn’t enough to catch Young and Matters Most in 1:58.1. The 29-year-old Aussie import put an exclamation mark on her first drive in America. She was joined in the winner’s circle by the other drivers along with another great woman in harness racing, Freehold’s director of racing, Karen Fagliarone. In an interview before the race, Young encouraged any young women looking to get into the sport to “go for it.” It is clear that Young herself is a go-getter and it will be exciting to see how her driving career progresses in the States.

The American Harness Drivers Club (AHDC) was also in action on Saturday when favourite La Magic and Tony Beltrami led for every step and withstood late pushes from rivals in the closing strides to win by a neck in 2:01 over Turbochargedpete and Joe Faraldo. Edwin Quevedo trains La Magic, an eight-year-old gelding by Kadabra, for owners David Dobbelmann and Triple Q Stables LLC. AHDC action resumes at Freehold next Saturday.

It was a successful day with a nice crowd, beautiful weather and exciting races. Freehold Raceway returns with more racing on Friday and Saturday, starting at 12:30 p.m.

(With files from Freehold Raceway & AHDC)