The perfect fit: Elizabeth Cheesman and Winbak

Elizabeth Cheesman exudes enthusiasm for the harness racing industry.

The 37-year-old Freemont, Ohio native, while having serious ties to the Buckeye State, morphed from caretaker and college student into Winbak Farms PR and Marketing Manager, a position she has held since early 2011.

Elizabeth, soft-spoken and demure, has the passion for her position that most employers dream of, and credits her mother—horsewoman Barb Lewis—and a chance attendance at the Clyde Hirt Journalism workshop, as the reasons for her success in harness racing.

Raised in Upper Sandusky, she tagged along with her mother who routinely trained and drove throughout Ohio while Elizabeth was a youngster.

“Of course, being raised by my mom, who drove and trained, I just always loved horses,” Elizabeth said. “I helped in the barn quite a bit, and showed some in 4-H, with a paint mare. I raised her baby and got to go to State Fair, where we showed in hand and halter classes.”

While in high school, Elizabeth was involved in a horseback riding accident that could have ended in tragedy, but the tough young lady bounced back.

“I broke my back in a horse fall,” Elizabeth said. “Not with a harness horse but with a riding horse. This happened during my sophomore year in high school when I was 15, and they put two rods and five screws in my lower back, and it was tough at the time because I had to wear a back brace for a lot of the school year. I really didn’t realize how serious it was until we had to go to Children’s Hospital in Columbus for a check-up, and the doctors there told me how lucky I was not to have been paralyzed from the fall. It kind of hit me then what had happened.”

Elizabeth was still able to work at the barn, helping her mother at the Upper Sandusky Fairgrounds, her back brace a constant reminder of her situation.

“I loved sitting behind horses and jogging them, but I really wasn’t sure over time how that would affect my back or how it would hold up, especially if I had a bunch of pullers to jog, so I knew that long term, that wasn’t going to be an option for me.”

Elizabeth later attended the University of Findlay, where she obtained a double-major in Public Relations and in Equine Business Management.

“I was editor of the university’s newspaper, which has helped a lot now with the work I do for Winbak,” Elizabeth admitted. “However, it was also due to the efforts of Ken Weingartner, who pushed me to attend the Clyde Hirt workshop, which is sponsored by the U.S. Harness Writers Association (USHWA) every year during the Hambletonian. That was an incredible and invaluable experience for a 19-year-old at the time.”

Elizabeth said it was the first time she had traveled to the East Coast. The Clyde Hirt Journalism workshop, named in honor of a famed harness racing writer, allows college students to collaborate with seasoned journalists who are covering the Hambletonian each year.

“My aunt drove me out there, and it was a whole new experience for me,” Elizabeth recalled. “It was just so exciting, being in the Meadowlands paddock and talking to people in the sport that you read about, but never get to talk to firsthand.”

A story which Elizabeth penned about a Hambletonian horse got picked up by the Akron Beacon Journal as a result of her efforts in the workshop. She knew then that writing about racing and promoting the sport was a path she wanted to follow. She graduated from college in December of 2009, and set her sights on finding the right kind of job for herself.

“I had worked at Burger King throughout college and didn’t really want to go back there after I graduated so I went to work for trainer Jeff Smith in Washington Court House for a while and went to the Red Mile with him, and eventually went back and helped Mom, but knew in the back of my mind that I had to be careful, and that I wanted more out of the business.”

Elizabeth took a temporary job at a factory in 2010, but shortly after starting work there, was informed that the company was going to let a sizable number of their employees go.

“The timing was really wild,” Elizabeth remembered. “Winbak had advertised for a new PR and marketing person, and Chris and Jeff Fout who I knew from Ohio and were working at Winbak knew that I was looking for a marketing job. Chris gave my resume to Garrett Bell, Winbak’s farm manager at the time, and I got the job, and started working at Winbak in March of 2011.

“I was ecstatic,” Elizabeth continued. “It was a big move for me, and at the time I had a little Dodge Neon, and I packed it as full as I could safely pack it and drove out to Winbak. Mom drove the horse trailer out later with of some my bigger stuff in it.”

A permanent fixture at Winbak now for the past 13 years, Elizabeth said she loves her job and the diversity that comes with her position and daily duties.

“Basically, my position at the farm is divided into two seasons—the breeding season and the yearling sales,” Elizabeth explained. “As soon as the yearling sales are over, I start looking at, and making decisions about, who we’re going to breed to next year. Also, we have mares that we are selling and others we are looking to buy at Harrisburg, to breed to any one of our 26 stallions.”

Winbak has three facilities, with the main farm being in Chesapeake City, Maryland, and has stallions that stand in Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, New York, Ontario, and Pennsylvania.

“There’s always a lot to do,” Elizabeth admitted. “We have stallions to advertise, as well as yearlings, and I do a lot with our social media presence. Right now, we have 16,000 followers on Facebook, and nearly as many on Instagram and Twitter.

“A lot of the reasons for the great following that we have is because we post every single foal that is owned by the farm,” Elizabeth explained. “And we ask our followers to submit name ideas—then I go through them and our team here will pick out a name from one of the ones submitted to us. A lot of our foals have been named in this fashion via Facebook in the last few years. Admittedly, it’s pretty time consuming, but in the end, it makes people and visitors to our site, feel more involved with the horses, and those people then tend to follow the foal if their name was chosen, throughout their racing careers.”

Elizabeth will also arrange private tours of the farm, and says her office provides her with all the tools needed to do her job, not just with her social media ideas, but also with more traditional publicity measures, such as print advertising, banners, and mailing cards.

“I’m able to create everything in my office,” Elizabeth said. “I have a laminator, poster printer, and cutter, so I can create whatever we need. The guys at the farm oversee the horse care, but I talk with the clients and run whatever errands might be needed for the farm to run smoothly.”

“There were guidelines in place when I came here, but I feel like I’ve added a lot to the program,” Elizabeth assessed. “We used to have far more print publications that I dealt with, but a lot of those are no longer around, so we do a lot more with online publications now. Times have changed and as farm marketing managers, we have to evolve as well and figure out what is going to bring more traffic to our website, and social media sites.

“We also have to be cognizant that there is still a large number of folks out there who like to have something viable in their hands; a flyer, a mailer—something that they can read and hang on to for reference.”

Elizabeth said she believes that Winbak is unique in that they have their own full-time marketing person on site at the farm.

“I believe that is what sets Winbak apart from the other farms,” she stressed. “We have a great presence in all aspects of the media. For instance, in 2023 we had slightly more than 250 foals, and we posted photos of every single one of them.”

Besides utilizing the platforms of Facebook and Instagram, Winbak also has a healthy following on LinkedIn and X (formerly twitter).

“I work a lot with (Winbak owner) Joe Thomson’s daughter Kimberly, who is at their other business, Pacer Financial,” Elizabeth offered. “She’s got a really good creative mind, and I often go to her for creative input and then will send whatever we’re working on to Joe for his approval. It always helps to have a second pair of eyes during the creative process. I also send stuff to Janet in Canada and Emily here to proof stuff for me. It’s simply good business practice.”

Elizabeth also works with the stallion owners, helping to navigate where a stallion stands, or any other pertinent information related to breeding.

“We had 26 stallions standing in six areas in 2024,” Elizabeth said. “We have three at the Maryland Farm, and so there is a lot of discussion on the logistics of things concerning the stallions.”

The diversity of her position is what makes every day a challenge and a pleasure, Elizabeth stressed.

“Sure, I do the social media content, and I love it, but besides doing all the graphic work, I genuinely love just talking with the various people I interact with, and studying the pedigrees, and seeing which mares we might breed to. There’s just so many distinct aspects to this job that make it exciting.”

Throughout the yearling sales—London, Goshen, Lexington, and Harrisburg, as well as several smaller, regional sales—Elizabeth tracks horses’ siblings who are racing.

“I monitor about 250 horses total for the sale, because having a full brother or sister to a yearling, who is doing well, can change the dynamics of that yearling’s sale price, so it becomes an important aspect of the job. My main goal is to keep all of the information fresh and in the minds of the buyers.”

Elizabeth said while Ohio will always be home—her mom resides on the family’s 27-acre farm with retirees and their 5-year-old racehorse Stablecreek Merlin—Winbak has become her other home, and she’s in it for the long haul.

“I landed in the perfect spot,” Elizabeth said. “Writing, doing graphic design, talking to people about horses, and getting to go to some of the sport’s biggest events—it couldn’t be more perfect.

“Winbak itself is kind of a big work family, and the friends I’ve made since being here have made all the difference in the world to me. Best of all, Joe and JoAnn (Thomson) treat us really well too. They expect you to do your job, but they’re also out there and supportive of you at the same time. I can honestly say that some of my closest friends are people I’ve met because of Winbak.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink