When young Austin Siegelman hustled Able Yankee to a come-from-behind 1:57.3 victory at Monticello Raceway on Monday (August 4), he lit up the tote board after the nine-year-old McArdle mare paid a whopping $221.00 to win.
However, as huge as the payoff was, and it’s big for an eight-horse field, it is still dwarfed by the ‘Mighty M’s all-time biggest return of $377.00 on a two-dollar win ticket produced by Cam Dan Kadandy and driver Greg Annoloro on September 26, 2012.
In their victory, Siegelman and his pacing mare used a second-over trip and came from behind to collar the pace-setter, 1-9 favourite Slickety Split (driven by Jimmy Marohn), and score a head victory; just the second in 22 seasonal starts for Able Yankee.
Last fall at the Monticello-Goshen Chapter USHWA Awards Banquet, Siegelman was cited with the scribes’ ‘Rising Star Award.’
“Winning the Rising Star Award definitely gives me a lot of confidence going forward,” Siegelman, from Kingston, Pa., told a reporter of his hometown newspaper, The Citizen’s Voice.
During the 2013 season, Siegelman was beginning to be noticed as a talented catch-driver and local trainers were starting to avail themselves of his abilities.
That year, Siegelman got his name in the Monticello Raceway record books after he drove Mymomsablizzard to a 1:57 triumph which equalled the track standard set by Arent I Hanover, who toured Monticello in the identical time for Zeke Parker on August 21, 2013.
In only his second year in the sulky, he finished the 2013 season with 90 winners. This year he has already reined 130 winners
Siegelman, who turned 22 years of age this past February 22, has recently been doing double-duty, also racing regularly at Saratoga Raceway (he added three winners to his seasonal resume on the Saturday night [August 3] card at Saratoga Raceway).
A quiet young man whose star is certainly on the rise, Siegelman isn’t one to celebrate openly. He lets his prowess speak for him. However, he recently said, “I plan on being in this business for a long time and hopefully these things are just the beginning of great things to come.”
(Monticello)