Mark Athearn celebrated a major driving milestone on Friday as the Maine Sire Stakes returned to Scarborough Downs.

Driving his stable’s stakes trotter, Mill Site Millie, Athearn toured the Seaside Oval to secure a brand new lifetime mark of 2:09 for the Maine-bred, but more importantly, secured his 500th career driving victory. He was joined in the winner’s circle by friends, members of his family, including his wife, Gretchen, and son, Kyle, and members of the drivers’ colony.

“To be honest, I didn’t realize I was getting close (to the milestone win) until I saw it posted on Facebook,” Athearn said in a telephone interview as he was driving home from the races. “I’m too busy to keep track of those things,” he joked. “But I remember my first win at Pompano like it was yesterday, and now I’ll remember this one. It was even nicer to have it with our own stakes filly.”

Mill Site Millie, a 2-year-old daughter of Boy Band, owned by Michael Andrew of Gorham, Maine, claimed the lion’s share of the $10,736 purse. Shes A Castoff (Don Richards) was second, and Current Credit (Wallace Watson) was third.

Other stakes winners on the card included CCC (Kim Ireland), a fourth-generation Maine-bred and Bickmore (Gary Mosher).

Sire Stakes competition will return to Scarborough Downs on Sunday, July 14 with 3-year-old colt pacers taking center stage. Post time will be at 1:05 p.m., ET.