HARRISBURG PA -- Heather Vitale, secretary of the Delaware Valley Chapter
of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), international harness
racing video journalist, self-proclaimed “Harness Racing’s Firework,” two-time
Sam McKee Broadcasters Award winner, and probably the only person in harness
racing who both holds Madonna as a role model and also has her own Wikipedia
page, has been announced by USHWA President Shawn Wiles as the organization’s
Member of the Year.
"Make no mistake about it, there is
only one Heather Vitale!" USHWA President Wiles notes. "Her colorful
and lively persona always adds excitement to every event. We look forward to
seeing Heather again this year at the Dan Patch Awards Dinner, on the Red
Carpet, as we have for many years. She has been a great voice and face for
Harness Racing in her region and for USHWA."
Heather comes from a multi-generational
harness family in Delaware. Her mother, Jo Ann Looney King, was the first woman
to drive a winner at The Meadowlands, and she is the co-owner of 2018’s
outstanding pacing mare Shartin N, trained by husband Jim King Jr.
Heather is a graduate of Monmouth (NJ)
University, with a focus on public relations/journalism, and she chose to
follow that career path rather than working with the horses. Her show “Post
Time” has aired on the CBS affiliate in the Delmarva region for some twenty
years, and she also co-hosts the weekly show “Pennsylvania Harness Week,” a
position in which she has served for nearly a decade. She has worked for ESPN
and for the Little Brown Jug network.
But a person of Heather’s ambition,
flamboyance, and talent cannot of course be confined to any one country. Her
journalistic travels have taken her not only to Canada, a logical extension
because of the fluency of the U.S./Canada harness crossing, but also to Ireland
and Australia, where she appeared as an on-air reporter during a major stakes
day. (And speaking of international recognizability, Heather was also a driving
force behind getting the richest harness horse world-wide, Foiled Again, into
the famous “stable” of Breyer collectible horse models.)
Heather is a prolific user of social media
since its inception, with many followers of her frequent postings on the
various platforms. “I’m not a bettor,” she says, “so I focus my stories on the
horses and the people in the sport, trying to tell their interesting stories,
and trying to appeal to people to come out to the track and watch the races. I
want to expose the sport outside of the fans we already have.” Her presentation
is tirelessly upbeat and positive in the service of harness racing.
Perhaps the best summation of Heather
Vitale was offered by Joe Thomson of Winbak Farms, who once told her, “The best
business I could be in is to bottle your attitude and sell it.” The Harness
Writers Association has benefited a great deal from her attitude and her
talents, and that’s why she has been named USHWAn of the Year.
Heather Vitale (and her family in their
connections to Shartin N) will be honored at USHWA’s annual Dan Patch Awards
Banquet, celebrating the best and brightest of harness racing in the past year.
The banquet honoring the champions of 2018 will be held on Sunday, February 24,
2019 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando FL, the climax of a weekend
that also finds USHWA holding its annual national meetings.
Tickets for the Dan Patch Awards Banquet
are $175, with a filet mignon dinner featured; “post times” on February 24 are
cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets, and other Banquet-related
information, can be obtained through Dinner Planning Committee Chair Judy
Davis-Wilson, at zoe8874@aol.com or 302
359 3630.
Hotel reservations for those attending can
be made through USHWA’s website, www.ushwa.org; a link to the hotel’s computer is on the
front page of the website. Those who would like to take out congratulatory ads
for awardwinners in the always-popular Dan Patch Awards Journal can do so by
contacting Kim Rinker at trotrink@aol.com
(the 2018 journal is online at the writers’ website).
