Christiansburg, Ohio -- The United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) is pleased to announce that Ron Burke, George Teague, Jr., and Yannick Gingras will be inducted into the 2022 Harness Racing Hall of Fame, along with Chris Boring who will be inducted in the Veterans category.
“This is a fantastic group
of horsemen who will be inducted at Goshen in 2022,” said Kimberly Rinker,
USHWA President. “All of them have contributed greatly to harness racing
through their professionalism, indefatigable work ethics, horsemanship, and
willingness to participate in publicity for the betterment of the sport. They
without a doubt certainly deserve this honor.”
The trio of Burke, Gingras,
and Teague secured well above the 75% of the yes-no votes required of the
electorate, with 147 ballots cast in the voting conducted by USHWA.
This quartet will first be
honored at USHWA’s Dan Patch Awards & Night of Champions on February 20,
2022, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, in Orlando, Florida. They will be
formally inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame on July 3, 2022 in
Goshen, New York.
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 more than 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 the 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 1:50.3 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.
