Twenty-six-year-old Austin Siegelman notched his 1,000th career driving victory at Monticello Raceway on Wednesday (September 5).
Siegelman, who in 2013 was awarded the Monticello – Goshen USHWA Rising Star Award, entered Wednesday’s racing with 998 wins.
Siegelman won Monticello’s fourth race with NY Whitesox (1:56.1 - $6.90) and then came right back in Race 5 to earn his first of many career milestones with KJ Brent (1:54.3 - $12.80), a six-year-old gelding by Art Major that is trained by Bruce Aldrich.
The usually-reserved and stoic Siegelman was all smiles in the winner’s circle as he was surrounded by his fellow horseman and other well-wishers after the milestone.
Siegelman currently occupies the third-place spot on Monticello’s dash-winning driver leaderboard with 141 wins.
Siegelman was on his way to a banner year this season until a racetrack mishap put him out of action for a few weeks, which cost his valuable mounts and wins. Thus far at Monticello his mounts have earned purses of $540,672 and he is sporting a UDR of .332. In terms of his career, he has driven his mounts to $6,377,355 in purses.
(With files from Monticello Raceway)