by Tim Bojarski, president, UNY-USHWA

Akron, NY — The Upstate New York chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association was proud to present trophies to the category leaders of the recently completed Buffalo Raceway meet this past Saturday (July 24). Due to inclement weather, the presentations were made in the paddock.

Jackie Flanigen

The leading driver of the meet was Jackie Flanigen. He simply ran away with the dash driving title with 197 wins, besting his nearest competitor by 37 wins. He had a UDR of .347 and $781,000 in earnings. His win percentage of 22 percent and 50 percent in the money finishes were also category highs for the western New York reinsman.

Last year, Flanigen was voted the comeback driver of the year by UNY-USHWA after a stellar performance that followed an accident that had curtailed his driving starts prior to that. He certainly proved he was worthy of that award as he picked up right where he left off this year and skyrocketed to the top of the leaderboard early and never looked back.

Sherri Holliday

The meet’s leading trainer was Sherri Holliday. She continued the success she had at the Batavia meet last year where she was also named Trainer of the Meet there, and Trainer of the Year for 2009 overall in western New York. She scored 69 wins since January at Buffalo with a UTR of .327 and purse earnings of $348,000. Like last year, Holliday’s horses are classified well and competitive no matter what class they are in and she was named Trainer of the Month several times during the year as a result of that.

Finally the Horse of the Year was Jim, an 8-year-old gelded son of SJ’s Photo who is owned by Michael Ventura of Williamsville, N.Y. Jim was racing in $4,000 claimers earlier this year and found himself moving up the ladder weekly under the tutelage of trainer/driver Jim McNeight. Along the way he amassed a meeting high 10 wins and $31,000 in purses, while ascending to the Open/optional claimer ranks. He is currently entered in that class with a claiming tag of $17,500 and looks to continue to contend well into the Batavia session.

Congratulations to the all the award winners and their connections.