Harrisburg, PA – William (Bill) O’Donnell, who had one of the greatest careers a driver has ever had, and since retiring from the sulky has stayed a major influence as president of the Central Ontario Standardbred Alliance (COSA), has been voted the highest honor decided solely by members of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), the Stan Bergstein-Proximity Award.
The trotter Proximity retired as the richest-ever Standardbred a couple of years before an award was named for her in 1952. Bergstein, the only “double Hall of Famer” and himself a Proximity winner in 1976, had his name added to the top award after his passing in 2011.
O’Donnell is a native of Maritime Canada, working his way down to Foxboro and Saratoga. He then set his sights on the sport’s flagship track, The Meadowlands, and Bill and John Campbell soon became synonymous with excellence in Jersey and on the Grand Circuit, much as an earlier pair of “Gold Dust Twins” – Stanley Dancer and Billy Haughton – shone in their day.
It was Haughton, then still a top-rate driver, who provided one of the sport’s signal moments when he took himself off driving the mighty Nihilator in the 1984 Woodrow Wilson Pace in favor of catch-driver O’Donnell, competing nightly and in peak form. A year later, O’Donnell became the first driver ever to win $10 million in a single season, and he regularly piloted world champions such as Prakas, Napoletano, Valley Victory, and Camtastic.
Tragically, O’Donnell and Haughton’s names would be linked one last time, after Haughton was killed in a 1986 racing accident. O’Donnell and Campbell took upon themselves to be among the leaders in a campaign mandating more protective helmets, and the fruits of this venture were immediately realized and continue to this day.
O’Donnell moved back to his native Canada in 2001 and largely retired from driving and training; in the sulky Bill guided 5,445 winners who brought home $90.6 million (with the vast majority of this earned between 1980 and 2000).
In 2009, he co-founded and was named president of the Central Ontario Standardbred Association, which as an early task negotiated a horsemen’s contract with the Woodbine Entertainment Group. COSA has a dozen representatives at Ontario racetracks; has horsemen’s benefits and benevolence programs; and spearheads a successful and cutting-edge marketing and television force, although the television arm is now run independently.
O’Donnell is a well-respected industry leader, serving on several prestigious boards, and having a firm grasp on the sport’s major issues. He is also one of its more eloquent speakers and raconteurs; few major figures have escaped a pithy, wry statement or two from “Billy O” at some point.
Bill O’Donnell will be recognized at the 2026 Dan Patch Awards Banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment, which will honor the best of the best of harness racing, both human and equine. The Banquet will be held on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, at Rosen Shingle Creek resort in Orlando, Fla. Sponsorship information for the Banquet can be obtained from Shawn Wiles at swiles@rwcatskills.com; advertising in the souvenir Journal can be arranged through Kim Rinker at trotrink@aol.com; and tickets through Judy Davis-Wilson, zoe8874@aol.com. For room reservations, click on this hotel link. More information about the Banquet and associated USHWA meetings that weekend will soon be available at www.usharnesswriters.com.
The United States Harness Writers Association is the leading group of communicators covering the Standardbred horse. USHWA conducts the official annual balloting for the sport’s most prestigious honors: induction to the Hall of Fame and Communicators Hall of Fame, along with the selection of the Horse of the Year, Trotter and Pacer of the Year, and the leading divisional horses of each season. Each year USHWA hosts the Dan Patch Awards Banquet, honoring the best and brightest performers in North American harness racing. This banquet is the Association’s principal source of funding, and with generous financial support from the harness racing and breeding industry, USHWA is able to host the banquet at a world-class facility in a world-class manner.