Super Chapter leads stellar cast of District 8 Award winners

Goshen, NY – World Champion 3-year-old trotting colt Super Chapter (Chapter Seven) has been voted the U.S. Trotting Association’s District 8 Horse of the Year.

Trained by Marcus Melander for owners Jeff Snyder and Arthur Pronti and owner/breeder Hanover Shoe Farms, the son of Chapter Seven has 9 wins in 14 starts and is this season’s richest trotter in North America with $1.2 million in harness racing earnings.

Super Chapter began his season with signature victories in the Yonkers Trot and Empire Breeders Classic.  Later, he won an elimination and was second in the $1,000,000 Grade 1 Hambletonian Stakes final at the Meadowlands.  He followed that effort with a world record 1:50f performance in the Earl Beal Jr. Memorial at Pocono Downs with primary driver Dexter Dunn in the sulky.

A strong contender for Dan Patch divisional honors, Super Chapter danced every dance, and was third by a half-length in the Kentucky Futurity (trotting in 1:49.2), finished a close second in the Breeders Crown, and capped his season with a decisive, 6-length victory in the Matron Stakes.

When the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of the U.S. Harness Writers Assoc. (USHWA) holds their 66th annual Awards Banquet on Sunday, December 7, 2025, presenting sponsor the New York Sire Stakes, along with representatives of the U.S. Trotting Association’s District 8 will honor a host of additional equine honorees, including Breeders Crown champion The Last Martini; and multiple Grand Circuit stakes winners and NY Night Of Champions standouts AI, Dandy Ideal and Fragment.

Once again this year the chapter has been given the opportunity to include the New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) and USTA’s District 8 Awards, which will be in addition to the year-end awards for horses and horse people from the local tracks.  This year, the event’s dinner sponsor is the Hambletonian Society and Breeders Crown.

The New York State awards include:

U.S. Trotting District 8 and the 2025 NYSS Human Awards go to: Driver of the Year, Jason Bartlett (a leading contender for Dan Patch driver of the Year); Trainer of the Year, Jared Bako; Owner of the Year, Purple Haze Stables; Breeder of the Year, Winbak Farm, in addition to Excelsior Trainer, George Ducharme; County Fair Trainer, Dylan Huckabone-Miller, and County Fair Driver, Kyle Cummings.

U.S. Trotting District 8 and the 2025 NYSS Champion Horse Awards go to: Horse of the Year, Super Chapter; Fragment (2-year-old Colt Pace), Liberty Style (2FP), AI (2CT), Sharp Seven (2FT), Dandy Ideal (3CP), The Last Martini (3FP), Happy Jack B (3CT), My Debt Collector (3FT).

NY Excelsior Series 2025 Champions: Southwind Iron (2CP), Two Twenty Swift (2FP), Rubens (2CT), Elqueen (2FT), Ima Perfect Choice (3CP), Time To Strike (3FP), Mane Man Charlie (3CT), EL Nightwish (3FT).

NY County Fair 2025 Champions: Brave Warrior (2CP), Where’s My Sneakers (2FP), Highway Six (2CT), Sevenboysalooking (2FT), Southwind Rodan (3CP), Bobby McGee (3FP), Devious Paul (3CT), Per Se (3FT).

In addition, when the Monticello-Goshen USHWA Chapter holds their 66^th annual Awards Banquet on Sunday, December 7, 2025, Moira Fanning will receive the chapter’s highest honor, their Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Monticello-Goshen chapter will also honor Ralph Scunziano (Excelsior Award); Keith Hamilton (John Gilmour Good Guy Award); Janet Durso (Amy Bull Crist Distinguished Service Award); James Crawford IV (Cradle of the Trotter Breeders Award); Jessica Hallett (Phil Pines Award); Dylan Huckabone-Miller (Rising Star); Barb and Liz Stubits (Mighty M Award of Appreciation), and Brenna Gill (Caretaker of the Year).

Funds raised through the banquet and souvenir journal have allowed the Monticello-Goshen Chapter to give well over $150,000 to Goshen Historic Track and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame over the last two decades.  The Track and the Museum are two separate and distinct entities that share the same hallowed ground and a mutual purpose of preserving and promoting harness racing.

The practice of raising money and donating funds to Historic Track and the Hall of Fame began in the mid-1970s with Monticello Raceway publicity icon John Manzi, and has continued ever since.

Additional information can be found on our website: monticellogoshen.com

Tickets for the gala event at The Country Club at Otterkill, Campbell Hall, NY, can be reserved by contacting Shawn Wiles at (845) 798-4074, or Email: swiles@rwcatskills.com

To place a congratulatory ad in the souvenir journal, please contact Chris Tully at (845) 807-7538, or Email: tullytrot@yahoo.com

from the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of USHWA