When Drew Monti started driving at Buffalo Raceway in April 2013, he was following in the footsteps of three generations of his family in the business.
Drew picked up the niche from his father, Darrin Monti, and his grandfather, Carl Monti, who both are still in the game training and owning.
Monti was born in October 1994 in western New York and was also raised there. He currently attends Canisius College where he is studying Management and had been studying veterinary science. Monti received his provisional license in 2012 where he started racing in the New York fair circuit and qualified horses. His first pari-mutuel win came in September 2013 at Batavia Downs aboard Right Back At You trained by his father. Drew says of his dad, “He has been in the sport all of his life and drove for 25 years before me.” Drew continued, “I really look up to him and my grandfather, and we still review races to this day after my drives.”
Currently, Monti sits at 96 career victories and is very quickly approaching 100 wins as he already has 19 victories in 153 starts this season. Since beginning his career in pari-mutuel races he has raced all over New York and he credits a lot of his success to not driving emotionally, being clear minded and also being aware of what is going on around him as his strategy. He said, “I love the long stretch at Buffalo, but also enjoy racing at Batavia.” Monti continued by saying, “Batavia is a lot harder if you do not have a lot of power.” Based on his driving so far at Buffalo, he loves the rail almost as much as Calvin Borel does in thoroughbred racing.
When being asked about his favourite horse that he has driven so far, Drew said that he had a couple, but the one who sticks out in his mind was Spender Hanover. Recently, Spender Hanover gave driver Tim Tetrick his 8,000th career victory at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Monti said he knew this horse was different and loved driving him while he was in western New York as Monti drove for owner Howard Ouriel and trainer Don Rothfuss.
When asked about his future in driving about possibly going to the Grand Circuit or even the sire stakes, Monti was very open to the idea, but is taking his time.
(Buffalo Raceway)