Roy Davis, Jeff Matt to PA Sports Hall of Fame

WASHINGTON, PA, May 22, 2023 — Roy D. Davis and Jeff Mallet, two Hollywood Casino at The Meadows harness racing legends, will be honored posthumously by the Washington-Greene County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame at its June 11 annual banquet at the Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe.

Davis, who died in June 2015, will receive a “Special Honoree Award” for his remarkable success as a Standardbred owner and creator of “Team Spur.” Harness Hall of Famer Dick Stillings, Team Spur’s trainer/driver (sometimes assisted by his brother, trainer Charles “Buddy” Stillings), will accept the award while Kim Hankins, executive director of the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association (MSOA), will offer an appreciation.

Mallet, a Meadows-based trainer/driver, stunned the harness racing world when his locally based Dragon’s Lair upset the previously undefeated Nihilator at The Meadows in the inaugural Breeders Crown in 1984. Harness Hall of Fame race caller Roger Huston will accept the “Hall of Fame Moment Award” for Mallet, who died last November.

Inspired by watching a match of soccer’s Tottenham Spurs, Davis began tagging all the horses he bred or purchased with the name “Spur.” Team Spur ripped off an unbelievable streak of high-level wins including back-to-back editions of the Little Brown Jug (Barberry Spur, 1986 and Jaguar Spur, 1987); two Breeders Crown events (Kentucky Spur, 1988 and Esquire Spur, 1989); the Yonkers Trot (Gunslinger Spur, 1986)) and the Delvin Miller Adios Pace for the Orchids (Barberry Spur, 1986).

Davis served as a director of the Hambletonian Society, the Little Brown Jug Society and the United States Trotting Association (USTA). The USTA named Davis the 1998 “Horseman of the Year” and inducted him into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame Immortals in 2019.

When Nihilator rolled into The Meadows for the Breeders Crown, most of the harness racing world assumed he would jog to victory to cap his unblemished freshman season. Mallet and Dragon’s Lair thought otherwise, and their upset not only was a signature moment in the sport, but it also helped establish the fledgling Breeders Crown series as the premier end-of-season stakes.

Tickets for the banquet, at $55 each, are available through the organization’s Website.

by Evan Pattak, for The Meadows Standardbred Owners Association