Matt Kakaley is on the fast track to stardom.
Kakaley might not be well known yet beyond Ohio, but that could change in the near future, especially if Kakaley continues to win races at his current pace. By the end of June, the soon-to-be 21-year-old Kakaley could pick up career victory No. 1,000 and become the youngest driver in harness racing history to reach the milestone.
Walter Case Jr. was the first driver to reach 1,000 lifetime wins prior to the age of 22, but Case was several months older than Kakaley will be this summer. Jordan Stratton, who needs 20 victories to reach 1,000, also is 21, but also would be several months older than Kakaley.
Kakaley, who will turn 21 on March 19, has won 61 races this year and won 499 in 2008. Most of those victories came at Northfield Park, where Kakaley finished second to Aaron Merriman in the driver standings. But Kakaley wasn’t strictly a homebody – he won at least one race at 15 different tracks last season.
“Things are going really good,” said Kakaley, who ranks fourth in wins this season among all drivers in North America. “I’m more relaxed now. When you first start driving, you want to impress everybody so you can get more drives. Now that I’m getting more drives, I’m more comfortable.”
In 2007, Kakaley was honoured with the Peter Haughton Memorial Award, which is given to an up-and-coming star by the Ohio chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Association. He also received the Terry Holton Youth Award from the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association.
Kakaley, who grew up in Michigan, lived in Florida for seven years prior to moving to Ohio. Kakaley’s parents, John and Linda, are a successful driver-trainer combo at Pompano Park in Florida.
“I’m going to stay here for now and we’ll see how everything goes,” Kakaley said. “Obviously, I want to leave someday, but we’ll see when the time is right. I’m just trying to take everything as it comes. I don’t really want to rush.
“You want to see yourself against the best and going for all the money, but you have to realize that you need to learn more so that when you do go you can compete with those guys. It’s a different ballgame.”
Kakaley’s top victory last season came with Gadjet in an Ohio Sire Stakes championship. This year, on January 21, he won five races in a row at Northfield.
“I don’t think about winning so many in a row. I just think about winning each one,” Kakaley said. “When you open the program and you see a lot of 5-2s and 7-2s; you feel confident. It’s a lot different than opening the program and seeing a lot of 8-1 and 10-1 shots.”
Kakaley knows he still has much to learn, and is a student of the game.
“I still make mistakes, but less than I used to,” Kakaley said. “I’ve got a little bit better feel for things and what to do in the right spot; when to move a horse. I watch a lot of replays to see what I could have done differently. But it’s hard to second guess yourself. You don’t really get a lot of time to think about what you should do.
“You either do it or you don’t.”
(Harness Racing Communications)