Author: from the USTA Communications Department

Twin B Joe Fresh breezed through her season last year, going 10-for-10 in stakes or invitational finals, and added another triumph Sunday (Feb. 23) when she was named the 2024 Horse of the Year to conclude the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s Dan Patch Awards banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment, before a crowd of 300 at Rosen Centre.

A month after the 6-year-old mare Joumba de Guez won the world’s richest under-saddle race, the Prix de Cornulier, she won the longest international trotting race at Vincennes, the 2-5/8 mile Prix de Paris for sulky.

Hawthorne Racecourse brings down the curtain on its winter harness racing meet with an earlier 6:30 p.m. first post Sunday night (Feb. 23), but not before a trio of Pop-Up Series finals are decided, including the filly and mare pacing showdown where the very likely betting favorite has been picture-perfect for the month of February.

DP Freedoms Chrome, who captured the 2024 sophomore male trotting division crown, was also unanimously selected as the 2024 Minnesota Harness Horse of the Year by those in attendance at the MHRI annual meeting and awards banquet on Saturday (Feb. 22) at Running Aces.

When you go into a card of racing having yearly statistics of a 36% win rate and a .481 UDR, it’s hard to improve on those current numbers, but that’s just what Jason Bartlett did on a cold Saturday afternoon (Feb. 22) at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania. Bartlett won half of the races on the 14-race card, and his “batting average” on the day was .603.

Derick Giwner and Ellen Taylor were selected as the two candidates advancing to this summer’s balloting for the Communicators Hall of Fame, as determined during the Saturday (Feb. 22) directors meeting of the United States Harness Writers Association.