Month: December 2024

Two up-and-coming stars of harness racing, horseman Brett Beckwith and track executive Jacob Rheinheimer, will be honored at February’s Dan Patch Awards banquet (presented by Caesars Entertainment) by the United States Harness Writers Association as the Rising Star and Barasch Breakthrough Award winners. Also to be feted at the Florida banquet are husband and wife Art Zubrod and Leah Cheverie with the W. R. Haughton “Good Guy” Award and Anne Chunko as the LeeAnne Pooler “Unsung Hero.”

Wavzeka, who has turned in two sparkling efforts at this meet, looks to keep the momentum going as she heads the cast for Saturday night’s (Dec. 28) featured $8,000 Filly and Mare Open Pace at Cal Expo.

Hawthorne’s current Jingle Bell Series came about with hopes of attracting plenty of horses, which it has accomplished, and give some of the smaller horsemen an opportunity to go for some decent pots late in the year, particularly those horses that had not done well as far as earning power. In some cases, the series certainly has delivered.

Hanover Shoe Farms, the southcentral Pennsylvania harness racing nursery which has produced the biggest money-winners of every racing year since records began to be kept in 1949, has had an outstanding 2024, and have been honored for this fact by being selected the Dan Patch Breeder of the Year Award winner in a poll of the United States Harness Writers Association members.