Jim Taggart Jr. remains driven.
Taggart, who got started as a harness racing driver by competing in amateur races in the late 1980s, added to his list of career accomplishments last week when he notched win 6,000 at Tioga Downs.
More than 3,700 of those triumphs have come since the beginning of 2011. Over the past 13 years, Taggart has averaged 278 wins and finished among the top 50 drivers in victories in North America in seven of the past nine seasons, with a high of 19th in 2015.
“It’s a nice number,” Taggart said about 6,000, which he won with Laurie Poulin-trained Prairie Magical in the fourth race at Tioga on May 31. “I just keep at it, keep working hard every day. I’ve been lucky to keep at it, doing what I like.”
Taggart, a native of Monticello, New York, began racing in amateur events at Monticello Raceway to launch his driving career.
“Since my dad had purchased horses, I became very interested in becoming a driver,” Taggart said in a previous interview. “Racing was a big part of life here in the area and I wanted to be part of it.”
He added on Tuesday, “This is what I wanted to do pretty much since I was a kid. I was like 14 [years old] when I started working with the horses and started driving when I was 18. I got the bug.”
Taggart has been the leading driver at Monticello three times in the past five years, including 2022 and 2023, and no worse than second seven times since 2014. He also has won a driving title at Pocono Downs and finished second twice at Tioga.
On Wednesday June 5, Jim Taggart Jr. was joined by friends, family and fellow horsepeople as he was feted in the winner’s circle at Monticello Raceway for reaching the 6,000-win milestone last week at Tioga Downs.
(With files from USTA)