How USHWA started with 12 and made it to 75

When the voters in the State of New York approved a referendum legalizing pari-mutuel wagering in November 1939, it foretold an exciting chapter for horse racing generally and the American-born sport of harness racing trotting that took place on country roads in the 1800s.

The New York State Legislature had passed the necessary bill earlier that year for the voters to decide the wagering question. It didn’t take long for voter approval to become a reality.

By September 1940, George Morton Levy, a nationally renowned criminal attorney with high profile cases, and business associates leased an abandoned track used for auto races and founded Roosevelt Raceway in Long Island, NY. He later became known as the godfather of modern harness racing and the pioneer of night harness racing.

Sports writers from Long Island newspapers began regularly covering harness racing at the track. On May 8, 1947, 12 of them formed the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), becoming the organization’s charter members.

Being close to the sport’s leading figure, they decided then to ask track owner and attorney Levy to draft a certificate of incorporation to make it official. That legal document was filed with the State of New York on July 16, 1947.

There you have it-12 harness writers formed an association that hit its 75th anniversary in 2022.

USHWA has recognized this milestone throughout 2022 and chosen its annual Dan Patch Awards Banquet, presented by Caesar’s Entertainment, to celebrate this milestone at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida, keeping with efforts to host the sport’s award winners in a first-class atmosphere.

Upon his election in 2022, USHWA President Barry Lefkowitz, whose career included director of public relations at the legendary Roosevelt Raceway, made USHWA’s 75th anniversary a priority for his administration.

It has grown into a world-class organization that is the industry’s largest group of communicators and the only media organization promoting harness racing, its equine and human participants, and leading performers.
From the original 12 writers, the membership grew in numbers and geographically across the country wherever there were harness racetracks and standardbred breeding and training farms to the point that there are currently 12 active membership chapters with 200 members.

In order of their being established, USHA now has chapters in New York City (1953), Ohio (1956), Monticello-Goshen (1959), New England (1961), Delaware Valley (1963), Florida (1964), Kentucky (1977), New Jersey (1987), Keystone (2006), Upstate New York (2008), Canada (2014), Indiana (2019), and At-Large, category created for those members who were not in proximity to a racetrack.

The original purpose enunciated in the incorporation papers were “to permit greater interest in the sport of harness racing through creating closer cooperation between writers of the sport and racing officials, trainers, owners and drivers in the harness horse field.”

During the past 75 years, USHWA has developed that purpose into a reality by shining the spotlight on the industry’s major racing events and the leading participants that keep it going strong.

USHWA members are responsible for voting annually for harness racing’s most prestigious awards-Horses of the Year, Living Hall of Fame inductees, Stanley F. Bergstein-Proximity Achievement Award and leading drivers, trainers and other human and equine awards.

One of the first efforts of the organization was recognition of the outstanding horses with the selection of Victory Song as Horse of the Year, an award that now highlights USHWA’s annual awards banquet, the first of which was in 1948.

Over a 6-year span in the 1960s, only two horses won that award consecutively, back-to-back three times-Bret Hanover for 1964, 1965 and 1966, followed by Nevele Pride for 1967, 1968 and 1969.

There were only eight two-time Horse of the Year winners, most notably Good Time, the winner in 1949 and 1952, and the only mare, Moni Maker, for 1998 and 1999.

The other 2-time winners were Mack Lobell (1987-88), Cam Fella (1982-83), Niatross (1979-80), Albatross (1970-71), Adios Butler (1960-61), and Scott Frost (1955-56).

Coincidentally, USHWA’s most cherished individual honor, the Bergstein-Proximity Award, includes the name of the mare Proximity, chosen Horse of the Year in 1950, following Good Time’s first win. Proximity also is one of only 14 mares or fillies to be Horse of the Year.

Another unusual coincidence connecting the name of Proximity to the USHWA banquet came in 2018 when Foiled Again, the sport’s richest harness horse of all time, was walked into the banquet room in front of hundreds of people to receive the aforementioned Bergstein-Proximity Achievement Award and be honored as Pacer of the Year. It was a unique moment in USHWA history when a horse was honored “in person” indoors.

There have also been only six geldings to receive the top equine award, Wiggle It Jiggleit (2015), Gallo Blue Chip (2000) Staying Together (1993), Savoir (1975), Su Mac Lad (1962) and Pronto Don (1951).

USHWA recognizes the best of harness racing’s media people with the John Hervey Award for excellence in writing, George Smallsreed Award for photography and Sam McKee Award for broadcasting and votes to elect membership chapter nominees to the Harness Racing Communicators Hall of Fame.

It has also opened the door to future interest in harness racing by creating a Youth Membership and created a path for budding young journalists to participate in the Clyde Hirt Workshop on Hambletonian Day at the Meadowlands Racetrack. USHWA is involved with the Harness Horse Youth Foundation, hosting a silent auction at the Dan Patch Awards Banquet that provides funds for HHYF summer camps of hands-on experiences for young people about working with the horses.

Because of its role in voting to induct Hall of Fame honorees, USHWA works closely with the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y., makes a direct annual donation and requires its members to become dues-paying members of the Hall of Fame.

What the New York State Legislature did in 1939 to launch pari-mutuel wagering led to the 1947 creation of USHWA by sports writers covering harness racing. In 2022, the New Jersey State Legislature adopted a special commendation recognizing USHWA’s 75th anniversary milestone.

by Leon Zimmerman, for USHWA