Tag: Ken Weingartner

Wanda Polisseni has had success as an owner and breeder, but the enjoyment she gets from watching horses flourish on the track is equaled by the pleasure derived from seeing those athletes thrive away from it after their careers come to an end. This past Sunday, Polisseni’s efforts were recognized at the Dan Patch Awards banquet. She was the recipient of the 2024 Stan Bergstein-Proximity Award.

When trainer Chris Ryder was recognizing the partners involved with female pacer Twin B Joe Fresh at Sunday’s Dan Patch Awards banquet, he introduced Barry Spak by noting his fellow co-owner “likes to remain a little anonymous.” Well, those days are over. Spak, who has never attended one of Twin B Joe Fresh’s races during her career to date, is ready to end his self-imposed exile following the now 5-year-old mare’s coronation as 2024 Horse of the Year.

Scott Blackler saw two Down Under imports step up for his stable in 2024, and he’s looking forward to getting started again with that duo this year. New Zealand-born male pacer Big Skewy will be the first to return to action, making his seasonal debut in Saturday’s $25,000 featured pace at Mohegan Pennsylvania’s Pocono Downs.

As Logan Rowe continues to establish himself as a trainer, he knows he can always count on his “big mare” for big efforts. Beautiful Seaside, a 5-year-old female pacer, has been a top-level performer for the Rowe family throughout her career. Bred and owned by Rowe’s cousin, Matt, she has won 17 of 54 lifetime races and earned $239,310.

Maynard Miller planned on giving Indiana-bred female pacer Walkin On Sunshine a chance to compete out east on the Grand Circuit, but first he wanted to provide her the opportunity to mature and ease into the transition from racing against fillies at age 3 to mares at age 4. After watching Walkin On Sunshine close out her 4-year-old campaign in 2024 by winning seven of her last 10 races — including the Indiana Sire Stakes championship for pacing mares — and open this season with a victory in the Fillies & Mares Invitational at MGM Yonkers Raceway, even Hannibal Smith would likely love the way the plan appears to have come together.

Andrew Harris figures he is likely to get emotional when the time arrives later this month for Abuckabett Hanover to be formally honored as harness racing’s best older male pacer. On Feb. 23 at Rosen Centre in Orlando, Fla., Abuckabett Hanover will be among the horses and people honored at the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s Dan Patch Awards banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment.

Willowtime, who was runner-up to T C I for the 2023 O’Brien Award for best 2-year-old male trotter to compete in Canada, will make his U.S. debut for new owner Tom Pollack on Saturday (Feb. 8) when he faces nine rivals in a $24,000 conditioned trot at The Meadowlands.

It hasn’t taken long for The Bird Dance to catch on in trainer Antonia Storer’s stable. A 10-year-old New Zealand-bred pacer, The Bird Dance arrived in Ohio at the beginning of the year and has posted two wins and a second in three starts for Storer at Miami Valley Raceway. The gelding’s most recent score was in the $36,000 Open on Jan. 26, and he will return to that class Sunday (Feb. 2) to hoof it against seven rivals.

If getting on the racetrack more often is the key to learning for a young driver, Justin Irvine’s 2024 workload provided something of a master class. Irvine, an Ohio native who turned 23 in December, competed in 2,350 races last year after making fewer than 3,100 starts combined through the first six seasons of his career.

From his earliest days sitting behind a racehorse, Steve Reisenweaver displayed a bit of a competitive spirit. Reisenweaver followed his father, Roy, into harness racing and was jogging horses by the time he was 7 or 8 years old.