The
World Cup, considered the Super Bowl of amateur racing, will take place in
Budapest, Hungary in September 2016 and Hannah Miller has been designated to
represent the United States in that prestigious event. This year the World Cup
will pit 12 countries from three continents in an international amateur driving
competition.
Miller
was named the USA’s Amateur Driver of the Year (2015) by the United States
Harness Writers Association and she has been chosen to drive for the North
American Amateur Drivers Association against her mostly male counterparts in a
series of races to determine the champion amateur driver of the world.
As
a member of FEGAT, NAADA has been entitled to send a United States
representative to the World Cup, something they have been doing for the past
few decades.
“Hannah was selected because
of her talent as a driver, her fearless competitive nature, her UDR numbers and
lastly because she was the only first ballot unanimous selection as
National Amateur Driver of the Year,” said Joe Faraldo, president and founder
of NAADA. “Her selection, by the North American Amateur Drivers Association,
which considered other candidates,ended eventually as a walkover.
"A credit to her family
and to her ability, the industry was lead down but one road as to who will
represent the United States in its so far elusive quest for the World Amateur
Driving Cup and that led unequivocally to Hannah Miller. We hope lady luck
will be the charm when our entrant competes in Budapest, Hungary in the first
week in September 2016.”
She’s
known as “Hurricane Hannah” because she has taken amateur racing by storm. Last
year, in her first full season of driving, and overwhelmingly against male
counterparts, Miller won 32 races and finished with a .418 UDR in 120 drives.
Her
32 driving victories are the most ever in a single season in recorded amateur racing.
And Hannah is also the first woman to win the National Amateur Driver of the
Year Award.
She
is a member of multiple amateur driving clubs and ‘danced every dance’
including as a participant in the granddaddy of them all, the C.K.G. Billings
Series, which she dominated this season. There Hannah finished as the combined
points champion and she won the east region final at Pocono Downs. But
unfortunately for her in the Billings Gold Cup final at Harrah’s Philadelphia
her horse, who was sent off at odds of 3-10, made a break early in the mile and
she finished back.
And
along the way this past year Hannah also won a NAADA trotting series and
a Catskill Amateur Club’s pacing series and she went two for two in amateur
contests at the Red Mile this past fall.
