OHHA announces Special Service awards

Grove City, Ohio – Julie Amstutz and Gene Wiley will be presented the 2019 Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association Special -Service to Harness Racing Awards at the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association and United States Trotting Association's District 1 Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday January 18th at the Marriott Columbus University Area Hotel, 3100 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, OH 43220.

Amstutz of Pandora, Ohio, will be honored for her forty-seven years of service as a clerk of the course and a charter. Amstutz comes from a harness racing family. Her parents, Dr. Clyde and Bess Field, were heavily involved as harness racing officials. Dr. Field served as president of the Western Ohio Colt Racing Association and the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association while his wife Bess was the secretary-treasurer for the Western Ohio Colt Racing Association.

Amstutz followed in her parents' footsteps by becoming a clerk of the course at several county fairs in 1972. She expanded that position at other fairs and then added the duties of charter to her responsibilities. Her final year of charting was in 2018.

Wiley of Richwood, Ohio will be honored for his service as a race official. Wiley has been a harness racing official since the early 1970s. His first duties were as a starter at fairs in Indiana. In early 1975, he earned his license to judge at county fairs. His first assignment as a presiding judge came later that year at the Huron County Fair in Norwalk, Ohio. He soon received other positions as a presiding judge throughout the state. Wiley believes that he has worked for at least one fair in every colt circuit that Ohio has ever had, except one.

Wiley worked at a factory that manufactured hydraulic equipment for farm machinery for many years while moonlighting as a presiding judge at the fairs. He also found time to serve as an associate judge at Raceway Park in Toledo and as a substitute presiding judge at both Scioto Downs and Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway. Wiley has not slowed down much as he served as the presiding judge at fifteen fairs in 2019.

Tickets to the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association and United State Trotting Association's District 1 Annual Awards Banquet are $ 30 and are available by contacting the OHHA office at 614-221-2650. Reservation forms are also available on the OHHA website at www.ohha.com.

The Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association (OHHA) is a non-profit organization serving Standardbred horse owners, breeders, trainers, drivers and fans who participate in the sport of harness racing in the Buckeye State.

OHHA was founded in 1953. The mission of the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association is to preserve, protect, promote and serve the entire Standardbred industry in Ohio and beyond.

by Frank Fraas, for the OHHA