by Keith Gisser, publicity director, Northfield Park

Northfield, OH — Dennis (D.J.) Millner won the 2010 Fritz Newhart Award as leading trainer at Northfield Park and Dan Charlino took the 2010 John Caton leading driver trophy.

They will join the honorees at the Northfield Park owners/horsemen awards banquet on Thursday, April 7.

Millner conditioned 100 winners and also won the purse title, as his charges earned $231,870. The late Fred Winstead, Jr. won the Universal Trainer Rating System title (with a minimum of one start per card) with a .510 rating.

Charlino’s 460 wins easily wrestled the Caton driving title from four-time defending champ Aaron Merriman, who missed four months due to injury. Merriman had 325 wins, to finish second ahead of Ryan Stahl. The top three were the same in the purse earnings race, with Charlino’s horses earning $943,272. Charlino took the local Triple Crown by posting a .415 Universal Driver Rating System ranking, beating Merriman’s .395 ranking. Elliot Deaton was third with a .341 UDR rating, again based on at least one start per live racing card at Northfield.

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