ATTRIBUTION – The United States Harness Writers Association
GOSHEN
NY -- The United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) Hall of Fame
Screening Committee is proud to announce an outstanding slate of candidates for
induction into the 2022 Harness Racing Hall of Fame. Trainers Ron Burke and
George Teague, Jr., along with driver Yannick Gingras, have been placed on the
Hall of Fame ballot for this summer’s election.
This
trio was then given a unanimous thumbs-up by four Hall of Fame trustees, who
are all members of the Hall of Fame, to finalize the process. As well, the
committee elected Chris Boring to the Harness Racing Hall of Fame, through the
Veterans designation process.
“I
am so proud of USWHA’s Screening Committee, headed by chairwoman Judy
Davis-Wilson,” said Kimberly Rinker, USHWA President. “She and fellow committee
members Tim Bojarski, Jason Settlemoir, Gordon Waterstone, Steve Wolf and Leon
Zimmerman worked professionally and tirelessly to provide the Hall of Fame with
an outstanding slate of candidates for 2022.”
Burke,
Gingras, and Teague will go before the Hall of Fame voters, who are made up of
eligible members of USHWA and all Hall of Fame members, via ballot, to be
distributed on August 1. If the trio secures 75% of the yes-no votes of the
electorate, they will join Boring as 2022 Hall inductees.
Ron
Burke has rewritten the definition of the modern trainer while shattering all
previous records for trainers in earnings and money – he currently has sent out
over 11,700 winners, 4,900 more than any other conditioner, and the $250
million+ earnings of his trotters and pacers are nearly double of his closest
competitor. He is a three-time winner of the Glen Garnsey Trainer of the Year
award selected by USHWA, in 2011, 2013, and 2018.
The
list of champions with whom Burke has been associated could go on for
paragraphs, but some top horses would be the highest earner of all-time, Foiled
Again ($7.6 million); Hannelore Hanover, the trotting mare who was 2017 Horse
of the Year; Mission Brief; and Sweet Lou. His stable has sent out 18 Breeders
Crown champions.
Foiled
Again and some other top Burke Brigade horses were driven by Yannick Gingras,
who came to the United States from his native Quebec, was USHWA’s Rising Star
of 2003, and has gone on to establish himself among the very highest ranks of
drivers that trainers seek out to handle their champions, while additionally
continuing to post a high UDR with all the horses he drives.
Likely
before the end of the year to become the sixth driver to join a select club of
horsemen whose horses have earned $200 million, Gingras is a two-time Driver of
the Year (2014, 2017) who led the sport in earnings for four years and finished
second four other times. He has to his credit 24 Breeders Crown championships,
six of the last seven Hambletonian Oaks and countless other major races, and
has guided stars such as 2020 Horse of the Year Tall Dark Stranger, Foiled Again
(as noted), Mission Brief, and at times the redoubtable evergreen trotting
mares Manchego and Atlanta.
George
Teague Jr. has campaigned some of top horses of the 21st century.
That list would begin with Rainbow Blue, a pacing distaff who was the 2004 Horse
of the Year while winning all but one of her 21 seasonal starts and who is
generally regarded as one of the most talented female pacers of all-time.
A
second Horse of the Year campaign by a Teague horse came from Wiggle It
Jiggleit (2015), who was as prolific a winner as Rainbow Blue and who earned
over $4 million in his combined 3- and 4-year-old seasons, with his most famous
win coming in the Little Brown Jug where he was passed in the stretch but
fought on to claim the victory. Most recently Team Teague has campaigned Lather
Up, a tremendously fast pacer who shares the 1:46 record for the fastest mile
ever with Always B Miki.
The
exploits of George Teague Jr. have earned him the William R. Haughton Good Guy
Award (2004, 2016) and HHI’s Dominic Frinzi Person of the Year (2016); in that
same year, his outstanding Team Teague received the Stan Bergstein Proximity
Award, USHWA’s highest honor.
Boring
is a direct member of the Hall of Fame through the Veterans provision, which
permits the Screening Committee once every three years to make a direct
assignment of a person 70 years of age or older, who has contributed greatly to
harness racing.
Chris
Boring, a member of one of Michigan’s founding families of harness racing,
began to make his reputation in his native state early in his career, and then
made his first foray into the national spotlight with True Duane, a winner of
$360,000+ more than 50 years ago. True Duane is best known for defeating older
stars Cardigan Bay and Bret Hanover while a sophomore in the American Pacing
Classic at Hollywood Park, obliterating the world record for 1 and 1/8 miles.
Boring
was the handler of Colt Fortysix, winner of the 1984 Little Brown Jug, with
whom he had earlier won in 1:50 at Springfield (the fastest time ever in a
race), and another outstanding 3-year-old, Albert Albert. A member of the
Michigan Harness Hall of Fame and inaugural class of the Hazel Park Hall of
Fame, Boring won races in seven different decades, amassing 3,979 wins and
$19,832,277 as a driver. He had the respect from his peers as a master
horseman, especially with younger horses.
Any
further inquiries can be directed to USHWA at ushwainfo@gmail.com.
