by John Pawlak, the U.S. Trotting Association

Columbus, OH — Jim Reynolds has been elected by the directors of U.S. Trotting Association District 5 (Illinois) to the Association’s board of directors to fill the position left vacant by the recent death of John Cisna. Reynolds, 70, will serve until the board next convenes for its annual meeting, in Columbus, Ohio on March 12, 2011. A new District 5 chairman, a post Cisna also held at the time of his death, will be determined in the coming weeks.

Jim Reynolds

Reynolds is retired as a driver-trainer, college professor and state administrator, but remains active as a Standardbred owner and by managing, with his sons, his 157-acre Freedom Hill Farms in Watseka, Ill.

A graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Reynolds returned to his alma mater to instruct after having received a doctorate from Indiana University.

Reynolds, although not born into a racing family, caught the horse bug while growing up in Sidney, Ill., in Champaign County. While attending — and later instructing at — Eastern Illinois he threw all of his spare time and spare energy into driving and training, first at the fairs and later at the Chicago racetracks.

He is a past president and member of the board of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association and also served on the board of the Illinois Standardbred Owners and Breeders Association and the Harness Horse Youth Foundation. In 1994 he was appointed director of the Illinois Bureau of County Fairs and Horse Racing, and served in that capacity until 2003. He maintains civic-minded and is currently a member of the Iroquois County (Ill.) Community Unit School District board.

Among his best-known current horses are Street Dancer p,4,1:49.3 ($868,465), a Richess Hanover filly who has brought Reynolds some success racing against top mares; Southern Sport p,3,1:51.3 ($99,873), who won the $100,000 Maywood Pace earlier this year; Trophy Hunter p,3,1:51 ($100,011); Rich N Flashy p,4,1:53.3h ($62,440); and Party Paula p,2,1:54.4 ($64,150).

Stars of the Reynolds Stable from earlier years include two by Meadow Skipper: Bye Bye Love p,3,1:59.3 ($54,803) and a personal favorite of his, Pandora’s Skipper p,7,2:00.1 ($128,686), whom he won in an Ohio auction after she had set many Ohio fair records and then developed into a Free For All mare that helped Reynolds obtain his “A” USTA drivers’ license.

Reynolds and his wife, Nancy, are the parents of two sons, Keith and Kristopher, and he has a daughter, Ginger, from an earlier marriage. Jim and his wife have two grandchildren.