Industry Excellence Awards announced

Two harness racing participants – Jo Stevens and Chanelle Dickie were among the winners in the Industry Excellence Awards announced in Auckland tonight.

The awards were created by Entain Australia and New Zealand to recognise the emerging leaders and rising stars under the age of forty, across all three racing codes.

Each category winner received a $10,000 cash prize with finalists receiving $2,000 cash.

Jo won the Administrative and Ancillary Services Award. She is a Group 3 winning harness racing trainer but she is also very well known for her Facebook page ‘Track Chat’. She has rehomed “a few hundred” horses over the years and also set up the first ever Dorothy Cutts Challenge for trans Tasman female drivers.

Chanelle Dickie is joint winner of the Care and Welfare Award with Anna Baigent. Chanelle is universally known as “the pink lady”. She has re-educated and re-homed dozens of standardbreds and is currently an educator with Harness Racing New Zealand’s Hero programme for re-education and re-homing.

Other awards as follows:

Newcomer Award: Matia Grace, Track Manager at Tauherenikau Racecourse.

Equine Handling Award (Stud or Stable): Michaela Sobiesk, stable foreperson for Roger James and Robert Wellwood at Kingsclere.

Dedication to Breeding Award: Ryan Figgins, Stallion Manager at Waikato Stud.

Dedication to Racing Award: Emma Smith who has been part of the Marsh Racing team for six years.

The Greyhound Excellence Award: Mikayla Clark who is shooting up through the ranks of the trainer’s premiership.

National Racing Woman of the Year: Elizabeth Whelan who’s a strong advocate for greyhound racing during some challenging times.

Leadership Award and overall Entain Excellence Award: Cameron Ring who has been a key player in sales and nominations at Cambridge Stud for five years.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink