USHWA announces final human award winners

Two up-and-coming stars of harness racing, horseman Brett Beckwith and track executive Jacob Rheinheimer, will be honored at February’s Dan Patch Awards Banquet (presented by Caesars Entertainment) by the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) as the Rising Star and Barasch Breakthrough Award winners. Also to be feted at the Florida banquet are husband and wife Art Zubrod and Leah Cheverie with the W. R. Haughton “Good Guy” Award and Anne Chunko as the LeeAnne Pooler “Unsung Hero.”

21-year-old Brett Beckwith had a leg up on success just on his “pedigree”: his father Mark has driven 5896 winners and his mother Melissa has harnessed 2423 visitors to the winners circle (and her brother Richie was the first Rising Star winner in 1986). Go back a generation, and you find grandfathers Jerry Silverman, a member of the Hall Of Fame, and Bert Beckwith, one of the most respected horsemen from New England in the last half-century.

But Brett has not rested on these laurels – in fact, it seems like he hardly rests at all. He was the leading driver at Saratoga during that meet’s long meet, defeating longtime “king” Wally Hennessey, and at Plainridge he dead-heated for the top spot with veteran Bruce Ranger (those two drivers, by the way, have over 22,000 lifetime wins between them). Additionally, he found time to make an impact in New Jersey, sitting seventh in the standings at Freehold and just outside the top ten at Meadowlands; Brett also was third during the winter Batavia meet. (That’s a lot of car miles along with the sulky miles.)

Beckwith’s star is definitely on the rise, as his four years of fulltime driving show at press time: 2021, 113 wins, .202 UDR; 2022, 230 wins, .266 UDR; 2023, 452 wins, .286 UDR; and 2024, 603 wins (third in North America), .336 UDR (and $6.1M+ in earnings). How much further he can progress, and whether he can latch on to driving in stakes racing and competing on richer circuits, will undoubtedly be fascinating to watch.

Jacob Rheinheimer also comes from a racing family, the campaigners of the well-remembered Freaky Feet Pete. However, after graduating from Trine University of Indiana in 2020, Rheinheimer went to work on the “front side,” as an intern in the Hoosier Park marketing department, where he rose through the ranks while drinking up knowledge. He then showed his newfound skills to advantage, such as with the track’s “First Turn” fractional ownership group, and he impressed people with his abilities during the 2023 Breeders Crown racing at Hoosier.

Already a proven handicapper, Jacob took over lead hosting duties on the Hoosier simulcast presentation when the opportunity opened, using his knowledge of many aspects of harness racing in a smooth blend to showcase Hoosier racing to advantage. Rheinheimer is also a writer, for the important Midwest Harness Report among other outlets, and he serves as vice-president of the Indiana Chapter of USHWA.

Art Zubrod and Leah Cheverie rose to prominence in managerial positions at the legendary Brittany Farms; Brittany’s owner and Hall Of Famer George Segal noted, “I doubt that there are two people in harness racing that are more devoted to the animal.” They also run their own operation, Fair Island Farm, who bred world champion Real Desire and takes part in racehorse partnerships.

It was through Fair Island Farm that Zubrod and Cheverie became involved with USHWA’s annual Caretaker Of The Year Award, with Fair Island becoming the award’s sponsor and main financial backer in 2019 and continuing to this day to honor some of harness racing’s hardest workers, those who care daily for the animals. Leah has also been a driving force with the Harness Horse Youth Foundation (HHYF) as a former trustee and secretary, and she herself won the organization’s Service To Youth Award. Today the couple sponsors HHYF’s “pony herd,” used during the Foundation’s summer camp series and one of the chief delights of the young participants, many of who have never worked with horses before.

The nominator of Anne Chunko got right to the point capturing her myriad contributions to Standardbred racing with a one-sentence opening paragraph in the submitted biography: “When you have questions, Anne Chunko has answers.” The manager of the U.S. Trotting Association’s Information and Research department, Chunko receives varied and voluminous questions about several areas of specialized harness knowledge – pedigrees, racing statistics, accessibility of data – and almost always provides complete and useful answers to those queries while always maintaining a helpful and professional manner.

Chunko, a “horse-crazy kid” who was exposed to harness racing, like so many in the sport, through her family, graduated from Otterbein College, a university in Westerville OH – and if that Ohio city sounds familiar, it may be because the USTA has its headquarters there.  Chunko earned her way upward through progressively-more responsible jobs, and is marking her 20^th year in Information & Research. She also served as secretary of the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of Ohio.

The winners will be recognized at the 2024 Dan Patch Awards Banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment, which will honor the best of the best of harness racing, both human and equine.  The Banquet will be held on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Florida. Sponsorship information for the Banquet can be obtained from Shawn Wiles at swiles@rwcatskills.com; advertising in the souvenir Journal can be arranged through Kim Rinker at trotrink@aol.com; tickets through Judy Davis-Wilson, zoe8874@aol.com; for room reservations, click on this hotel link. More information about the Banquet and associated USHWA meetings that weekend will soon be available at www.usharnesswriters.com.

The United States Harness Writers Association is the leading group of communicators about the Standardbred horse. USHWA conducts the official annual balloting for the sport’s most prestigious honors: induction to the Hall of Fame and Communicators Hall of Fame, along with the selection of the Horse of the Year, Trotter and Pacer of the Year, and the leading divisional horses of each season. Each year USHWA hosts the Dan Patch Awards Banquet, honoring the best and brightest performers in North American harness racing. This banquet is the Association’s principal source of funding, and with generous financial support from the harness racing and breeding industry, USHWA is able to host the banquet at a world-class facility in a world-class manner.

From the U.S. Harness Writers Association