by Jack Ginnetti

Marlborough, MA — ‘Tis better to give than to receive. That’s what members of the New England Amateur Harness Drivers Club, based at Plainridge Racecourse in Massachusetts, have been doing for some five years.

Be it the Worcester Telegram & Gazette Santa Fund or the St. Jude’s Hospital Fund, some $5,000 will be distributed again this year from drivers’ fees.

Some 25 members of the club are involved in this endeavor which began in 2002 under the guidenceship of Bill Abdelnour, 62, a retired Worcester, Mass. public school teacher and administrator who has served as president.

Abdelnour has passed all the levels needed to drive on any harness track after five years of racing in the amateur ranks. He owns two horses, Freedom Fry and Key To The Palace. Both horses are spending the winter on a farm in Grafton, Mass. His wife, Janet, helps with the training.

In a published article in the December 26th edition of the Telegram and Gazette, Abdelnour noted that 2009 holds big changes in New England harness racing when Plainridge and Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H., won’t conflict on racing dates. Plainridge will open its meet in mid-March and run to early June and Rockingham’s meet runs from June 6 to August 30. Plainridge then races their fall meet which in 2008 ended November 28.

In the past, members of the driving club, who all have other jobs and race for the thrill of competition and love of the sport, have contributed to such causes as the American Diabetes Association, Standardbred Retirement Foundation, Carroll Center for the Blind, Standardbred Pleasure Horse Association of Mass., New Vocations Retired Racehorse Adoption Program, Pan/Mass. Bike Cancer Challenge, and the Harness Horse Youth Foundation.

Ray Ahto is the new president of the NEAHDC and one thing’s a certainity. He has big shoes to fill. Abdelnour”s presence and contributions to the club from working with management to fulfilling a dream have resulted in a winning situation for all.