Over the decades the Monticello-Goshen Chapter USHWA has
held annual awards banquets to celebrate the accomplishments, both human and
equine, at Monticello Raceway and Historic Track. Along with those accolades
the scribes have also honored special individuals whose contributions to the
sport have been exceptional.
Tom Charters, president and chief executive officer of the
Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown, will be the recipient of this year’s
Monticello-Goshen Chapter USHWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the chapter’s
upcoming banquet in mid-November.
If you ever have the opportunity to listen to Charters talk
about his life you’ll hear a soft-spoken, almost humble, account of a
long and meritorious career in harness racing. As he expounds his voice never
changes a decibel but the more he tells of the people, places and things he
been involved with, the more you realize you are listening to one of the
true superstars in the sport.
Like most who are successful, Charters didn’t start at the
top. A native Buckeye from Springfield, Ohio, he began his
distinguished career as a groom for Dick Hackett.
In the spring of 1968, while studying print making and
painting at Ohio’s Miami University he took a summer job grooming horses for
legendary Hall of Famer, Delvin Miller, a move that was to play a key role
in his life.
After a two-year stint in Vietnam, Charters returned
to college this time at the University of Kentucky earning his degree in
animal science in 1973.
“When I returned from Nam I wrote Delvin a letter
stating if I bring my own rub-rags and my dog could I have a summertime job
again to which Miller replied ‘yes but leave the dog home and
I’ll supply the towels’. That was the last job application I ever made,”
Charters said with a laugh.
Working for Miller for four years Charters cared for the
1974 Yonkers Trot winner Spitfire Hanover and then toured Europe with Delmonica
Hanover, one of the greatest trotting mares the sport has ever known.
“My family was real proud,” Charters said with
tongue in cheek. “Here I am with a college degree working for $100 a week
caring for horses!”
In February, 1976, Charters was named assistant racing
secretary at The Meadows, the western Pennsylvania track founded by Miller, and
in January 1980 he became racing secretary there. In May, 1983, he left
the Meadows on a long jaunt to China, where he became director of racing and
racing secretary for the newly opened Macau Trotting Club. A year and a
half later, again at Miller’s suggestion, he returned stateside to become
executive director of the Breeders Crown, a year-end, the year-end championship
series formed under the aegis of the Hambletonian Society, Inc., one of the
most prestigious and important organizations in the sport.
After ten years of distinguished leadership of the Crowns,
Charters was named executive director of administration for the Society,
overseeing its administration of 130 races it owns or services across North
America, including the sport’s ultimate prize the Hambletonian. Four
years later in 1998, he was named president and chief executive officer.
During his outstanding career Charters has been
honored in the Standardbred industry with the 1993 Bill Haughton “Good Guy”
Award from the United States Harness Writers Association and the 1998
Meritorious Award which is presented annually by the Ohio Chapter of that group
to an native Ohioan for a dedicated and significant career in the harness
industry over the previous two decades. He also was recognized by
the Hambletonian Society in 1994 with the F. L. Van Lennep Memorial Award,
citing extraordinary and important contribution to the harness racing industry
and in 1999 by Sports Eye, the former New York area harness paper, with their
William Haughton Award. In 2001 he received Harness Tracks of America’s
first Distinguished Service Medallion and in 2004 he was the recipient of the
Proximity Achievement Award.
Charters is a director
of the Hambletonian Society, Inc., as well as the Society’s representative on
the Racing Committee of the American Horse Council and the Racing Medication
& Testing Consortium. He is a trustee of the Harness Racing Museum, a
steward of the Grand Circuit and formerly president of the American Harness
Racing Secretaries, and trustee of the Harness Horse Youth Foundation,. He is a
member of: the U.S. Harness Writers Association (N.J. chapter); the Honorable
Order of Kentucky Colonels, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association, the
Cranbury Lions Club and a parishioner of the Queenship of Mary R.C. Church in
Plainsboro, N.J.
He resides in Cranbury, N.J. with
his wife, Dr. Susan Saravalli, Ph.D.
Charters will receive his Lifetime Achievement Award when
the scribes hold their 55th Annual Awards Banquet at the Fountains
in Middletown NY on Sunday, November 17.
For reservations, or to place a congratulatory ad in the
chapter’s charity journal, please contact banquet chairman John Manzi at
845.794.4100x455 or email him at jmanzi@empireresorts.com
.
