HARRISBURG PA – The United States Harness Writers
Association (USHWA) has selected David Mc Duffee as the Norman Woolworth Owner
of the Year, Richard “Nifty” Norman as the Glen Garnsey Trainer of the Year,
and Dexter Dunn as the Driver of the Year in its year-end Dan Patch Awards
balloting.
All three of the awardwinners intersect at Bella Bellini,
the three-year-old trotting filly who was the richest trotter of 2021 with
$1,111,500, and the winner of the Hambletonian Oaks and Breeders Crown.
For Mc Duffee, this confluence at Bella Bellini must be
especially pleasing, as he bred Bella Bellini out of his champion racehorse
Bella Dolce; her dam Pizza Dolce, another quality distaff, was co-owned by Mc
Duffee. That’s three straight generations of trotting filly power for the
veteran of over 50 years of owning and breeding.
Mc Duffee is also part-owner of another
million-dollar-winning trotting filly, Venerable, whose two-year-old campaign
included a triumph against “the boys” in the Mohawk Million. Swingforthefences
and Chin Chin Hall were also among Mc Duffee’s top winners of over $3.8M from
only 19 horses he owned outright or in partnership.
Nifty Norman was the trainer of both Bella Bellini and
Venerable, which is a nice way to add $2.1 million in earnings to your
best-ever seasonal total, which may still reach $6 million in the closing days
of 2021. His stable also clicked at a 21% win rate during the campaign, giving
him a third straight season with a UTR over .340.
Besides these two star fillies, Norman also conditioned a
pair of top-quality three-year-old pacing fillies, last year’s champion Fire
Start Hanover and Grace Hill, who each enjoyed $500G-winning seasons despite
having to go against both each other and one of the best sophomore sidewheeler crops
in recent memory. In all, Norman-trained horses won 15 races of $100,000 of
more, with Bella Bellini, Venerable, and Grace Hill winning their respective
Sire Stakes championships.
The third member of this trio, Dexter Dunn, was voted top
driver for the third successive year. This statement is even more impressive
when considering that Dexter has driven in North America fulltime for only the
last three years after establishing himself as a world-class driving star in
his native New Zealand.
Dunn has driven the winners of almost $36M the last three
seasons, including being #1 this year with a personal best $12.7M figure. Like
Mc Duffee and Norman, he gained much of his success in 2021 behind females – in
addition to Bella Bellini, Dunn was the regular pilot for Niki Hill, a standout
two-year-old pacing filly who won over $900,000, and the trotting mare star
Manchego, who lifted her career bankroll over $3M and who was the dominant
free-for-all trotter of either sex for the first half of the year and beyond.
In all, Dunn won $100,000 races with 15 different horses,
who combined charged home first in no fewer than 26 six-figure events.
David Mc Duffee, Richard “Nifty” Norman, and Dexter Dunn
will be honored at USHWA’s Dan Patch Night of Champions Awards Banquet, to be
held on Sunday, February 20, 2022 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando
FL. Those wishing to take out a congratulatory ad in the Souvenir Journal
should contact Lynne Myers at myerslex@yahoo.com; sponsorship
opportunities can be explored with Shawn Wiles at swiles@empireresorts.com.
For tickets for the Awards Banquet, contact Judy Davis-Wilson at zoe8874@aol.com;
to book rooms at the Rosen Shingle Creek, go to the USHWA website, where in the
middle of the first page is a link directly into their reservations
computer.
