Tom White Media Award to Dean Hoffman

Hall of Fame Communicator, Dean Hoffman has been named the Tom White Media Award winner for 2022 by the Little Brown Jug and the Delaware County Fair.

A native of Montgomery, Ohio, Hoffman worked at Walnut Hall Farm in Lexington, Kentucky and groomed horses for a Grand Circuit harness racing stable while attending Ohio University, from where he obtained a journalism degree in 1971.

He worked in public relations and advertising agencies in varying capacities before being named Executive Editor of the United States Trotting Association’s monthly magazine, Hoof Beats, in 1981. He held that position for almost 25 years, longer than any previous editor.

Hoffman wrote several books on harness racing, including: Yankeeland: The Farm the Kellers Built; Castleton Farm: A Tradition of Standardbred Excellence; Quest for Excellence: Hanover Shoe Farms: The First 75 Years; Harness Racing in New York State: A History of Trotter, Tracks and Horsemen and The Hambletonian: America’s Trotting Classic.

Hoffman won the Harness Horsemen International’s Media Award (1999), the Harness Tracks of America’s Dan Patch Award (2003), the Harness Tracks of America’s Stan Bergstein Messenger Award (2005), the Pinnacle Award (2006) and was named the American Horse Publication’s Champion (2017).

In 2007, Hoffman received the sport’s highest honor, induction into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame’s Communicator’s Corner.

Hoffman will be presented his award at a ceremony Tuesday evening in the Delaware Log Cabin.

The award honors the legacy of long-time Little Brown Jug and Hall of Fame publicist, Tom White, who passed away in 2019.

by Jay Wolf, for the Little Brown Jug