by Frank Salive, publicity director, Isle Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — By any sensible measure Joan Huszak is a groom of racing Standardbreds that’s just outstanding at her craft. Though bashful to acknowledge the accolades of her employers past and present, she will only humbly confirm that her work is her passion and it remains a true labor of love to render the crucial primary care for the horses in her care to race to their full potential. In many cases lately at Pompano, that word ‘potential’ is synonomous with ‘winning.’

Lap Time Photo — Skip Smith

Gaston Glaude and Joan Huszak are all smiles in the winner’s circle at The Isle Casino Racing Pompano Park. The trainer-groom combo were posing with trotting mare Feel L A.

“Pretty soon it will be 50 years for me to be involved with the horses and it’s been a life that I wouldn’t trade for anything,” Huszak says. “My memories in harness racing date to about 1964. I was born and raised in Ohio and spent a great deal of time in Lexington working at the Red Mile, too. The long list of great people I’ve worked for starts in the 1960s with Ralph Baldwin and the Van Lennep family around the time they were launching Pompano Park. I was fortunate to be the groom of the Van Lennep’s trotter Snow Speed who as I recall was the only horse of that era to defeat Nevele Pride.”

Along her career path was an employment tenure with Bob Bencal as the groom of one of his top students, Chili Bowl, which preceded a decade long stint with Jan Johnson and the Continental Stable. That meant spending several winters in Florida where she subsequently decided to make her full time home and employment base at Pompano. Early this year, the untimely death of Pierre Fortin led to an opening for a groom with long serving Pompano trainer Gaston Glaude, and he pulls no punches about the talents and contributions that Huszak brings to his stable.

“I doubt very much I’d be having this kind of year without Joan,” Glaude declares of his current campaign in which he continues to win with well over one-fifth of his starters. “She is the ultimate great groom. She brings a world of experience with her, a lot of that from trainers with trotting stables, so she is a super fit for what I’m doing. All I can say is Joan is the total package for her work ethic and her knowledge of horses stemming from her love of the work she’s doing.”

The stable of winning trotters sent forth by Glaude and Huszak recently includes Feel L A, Duke Of Stormont, Dubois Of France, and Ornellia Dream. Glaude indicates that he’ll be scouting for horses in Ontario after the July 30 conclusion of the current Pompano meet.

The 8-year-old mare Feel L A has stepped up as the stable leader with a 1:55.4 mark last week. She’s entered back in the first race of the Wednesday evening (June 1) program.

“Feel L A is a mare that loves grass and it wasn’t easy to find it for her with the drought we had here over the winter,” Huszak says. “All I can take credit for with her is taking the extra time to make sure she’s happy, and I suppose that’s the same tactic I try for all the horses I have in my care. I’m totally enjoying working for Gaston, he is such a gracious, kind hearted and upbeat person. This chapter with him continues this charmed life I’ve loved working with the horses.”