HARRISBURG PA – The
remaining winners of Dan Patch Awards in the human and broodmare categories, as
voted on by the membership of the United States Harness Writers Association,
the sport’s leading association, have been announced.
RISING STAR: BOB MCCLURE; GOOD GUY: JIM KING JR.;
BREAKTHROUGH: DAWNELLE MOCK;
UNSUNG HERO: WANDA POLISSENI –
Outreach by Women for Support and Protection of Sport
Recognized;
Men (Usually) Let Their Horses Do The Talking for Them
The Rising Star and the Breakthrough
Awards are for up-and-coming stars in harness racing, in the trainer/driver and
non-trainer/driver category respectively; the Good Guy Award is given to
someone who thinks and speaks positively about the sport and has a good
relationship with the media, while the Unsung Hero is someone performing
important tasks for the sport out of the spotlight.
In grouping these
four awards and their winners for description, the combinations of the foursome
falling on male and female lines, as expressed in the title, is interesting.
Dawnelle Mock is
the Director of Marketing for the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association. In
her three years at the western Pennsylvania track, she has been the spearhead
for the MSOA onto multiple digital platforms. She has shepherded several
successful charity events; she has reached out to form a partnership with the
Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey team, a project with a large crossover
potential; and she has been the MSOA liaison with the operators of The Meadows’
racetrack for a number of successful promotions, which contributed to a 6%
year-over-year rise in handle at the track. Mock “works well with others,” but
much of her success has been born of her own initiative and vision.
Wanda Polisseni has
long campaigned harness horses under the name Purple Haze Stable with success,
mostly in her home state of New York. She has founded a humanitarian
organization to improve the standard of living – education, human services,
civic improvement – in Upstate New York. Long an advocate for the after-track
life of racehorses, on both the Standardbred and the Thoroughbred side of
racing, Polisseni has now undertaken to buy a farm in New York that will serve
as a home and a base for the Purple Haze Standardbred Adoption Program, for
state-bred horses, that will also be the headquarters of the Harness Horse
Breeders of New York State. If Wanda Polisseni can help, you can count her in;
like Mock, she makes things happen.
Both Bob McClure,
based in Ontario, and Jim King Jr., who races out of the state of
Delaware but
competes at all the major tracks, come from generations of horsepeople, and as
such are not the type to seek the spotlight, though they cooperate with the
media when attention comes their way.
Attention came to
McClure in a big way during 2019, when he won the most prestigious harness race
in North America, the Hambletonian, with Forbidden Trade. The victory was the
culmination of a decade of continuous growth for the graduate of smaller
raceways to the Grand River-Georgian Downs-Western Fair circuit and then right
to the “A” class of his province’s racing at Woodbine at Mohawk Park, where he
ranks among the colony’s top drivers. He earned over $5 million (Can.) for the
first time in 2019, despite suffering a broken pelvis on April 25 – he was back
racing in less than a month, using the cutting-edge technology of a hyperbaric
chamber to aid his recovery.
Jim King Jr. has a
reputation as a “ladies’ man,” but only in the best sense. In addition to
having in his family two of the sport’s best spokespeople – wife Jo Ann
Looney-King, a former winner of the Good Guy Award, and the self-proclaimed
“harness racing firecracker,” awardwinning communicator Heather Vitale – King
seems to have a particular touch with the pacing ladies, as evidenced by his
two 2019 stars: the free-for-all Shartin N, who won over $2 million in 2018-19,
and the precocious two-year-old Lyons Sentinel, North America’s biggest earner
as a freshman while banking over $800,000. In keeping with his winning the Good
Guy award, King will give honest, thoughtful answers to the media’s questions,
never assuring success, but conscious of the power of the stable that his
talents has built.
TOP TROTTING BROODMARE SECRET MAGIC HELPS
BRITTANY FARMS LLC TO BREEDER OF THE YEAR HONORS;
PRECOCIOUS BEAUTY PACING BROODMARE WINNER
Brittany Farms LLC,
breeders of the 2019 “Millionaires’ Row” of Bettor’s Wish, Manchego, Six Pack,
and American History among other top trotters and pacers, was voted as Breeder
of the Year by USHWA. Also earning honors was the dam of Manchego, Secret
Magic, who was picked as the Trotting Broodmare of the Year.
Brittany Farms,
owned by Hall of Famer George Segal, was purchased in the late ‘80s and has
been among the leading nurseries in the sport throughout Segal’s ownership. In
2019 Brittany ranked third among breeders with offspring winning over $12
million, despite a much lesser number of produce racing than many other
establishments. Brittany bred three Breeders Crown winners in 2019 – American
History, Manchego, and Reflect With Me – to raise their all-time total to 25
Crown champions, one behind Hanover Shoe Farms.
As noted, the
Cantab Hall-Chorine Hanover matron Secret Magic earned honors as Trotting
Broodmare of the Year, primarily because of the $2 million world champion
Manchego, but also contributing was In Secret, a ten-time winner and $200,000
earner against Open company. Brittany bred Secret Magic, raced her, and then
kept her as a broodmare until selling her early in 2019 to Hanover.
The Art
Major-Precious Beauty matron Precocious Beauty has only two foals of racing age
– the powerful, Breeders Crown-winning freshman pacing colt star Tall Dark
Stranger and the filly Beautyonthebeach, a winner of $540,428 who lowered her
mark to 1:49.2 during 2019. These two sharp stakes performers were enough to
secure Pacing Broodmare of the Year honors for Precocious Beauty, herself a
racetrack winner of $838,004 and with ever-increasing prospects as a broodmare
for James Avritt Sr., who bred her, raced her, and continues to own her as a
broodmare.
This release
completes the announcement of the Dan Patch Awards in the human and broodmare
categories. The twelve racehorse divisional champions will be announced this
Friday, January 3, at 6:30 p.m. on The Meadowlands’ “pre-races” show, with
media releases following (availability to view that announcement will be
released shortly).
All of the honorees in this release
and their connections 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 2019 will be held on Sunday, February 23,
2020 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando FL, the climax of a weekend
that also finds USHWA holding its annual national meetings. The Trotter of the
Year, Pacer of the Year, and Horse of the Year will be revealed for the first
time at the Banquet.
Tickets for the Dan
Patch Awards Banquet are $180, with a filet mignon dinner featured; “post
times” on February 23 are cocktails at 5:30 p.m., with dinner to follow.
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.net; 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 or 708
557 2790 (the 2019 journal is online at the writers’ website).
