The newly formed Upstate New York USHWA Hall of Fame has announced the first three of 12 charter members that will be enshrined later this fall.
William 'Buddy' Gilmour, Gerry Sarama, and the family of Dave Vance will be in the winners circle at Buffalo Raceway this Saturday night to accept their crystal keepsake commemorating their inductions.
Buddy Gilmour was described by many as the best driver in the sport. Born in Lucan, Ont., in 1932, Gilmour gravitated to harness racing at an early age. He worked for and learned from Hall of Famer Clint Hodgins. Gilmour went on his own in the early 1950s and won his first race at Toronto's Dufferin Park in 1952.
Buddy started driving on the Buffalo-Batavia Circuit shortly after that and competed there until 1962. That was the year Gilmour lost his entire 18 horse stable in a barn fire at Batavia Downs. That loss included his two prized horses, pacer Howard Rosecroft and trotter Demon Damsel. After having lost his livelihood and with the meet drawing to a close at Batavia, Gilmour surmised there was little else to do but move to another track in order to support his family. That is when he moved to the Big Apple and set up shop at Yonkers and Roosevelt.
Since that move, he recorded $1 million-plus seasons 15 times, a mark which at one time put him fourth in this category. Gilmour has been fortunate to have teamed with some of the sport's best horses over the years, including On The Road Again, Follow My Star, Steinam, Joie de Vie, Mirror Image and Millers Scout.
In 1992 at the age of 60, Gilmour formally retired, but he would continue to drive in special events until 2003. Reflecting on his career which spanned forty tremendous years, Gilmour stated about his chosen profession. "It's been a great life and I can honestly say I never felt like I was going to work one single day."
His record of 5,381 wins and over $44 million in purse earnings signify that he indeed ranked as one of the best.
Buddy Gilmour was inducted into the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Hall of Fame of the Trotter in Goshen, New York in 2001.
Gerry Sarama has been around the sport his entire life as his father owned and raced horses. He started driving at an early age and quickly found himself at the top of the driver colony at Batavia Downs and Buffalo Raceway and was a perennial driving leader on that circuit.
Although he made a move to Roosevelt Raceway for a while and competed with the best in the Nation, he eventually found his way back to his roots in Western New York. But the one constant of Sarama’s career regardless of what track he was competing at, he was always a highly sought after catch driver. Some of his most memorable horses were Jambo Bea, Free Chase, and his personal favorite Cambiance.
In his driving career, he amassed 2630 wins and bankrolled $11.5 million dollars.
Gerry has turned his attention to training full time in recent years and has found as much success there as he did as a driver. He currently overseas about 19 horses and in the past three years his stable has won in excess of $700,000.
Dave Vance was brought up in a racing family and learned his early lessons from his father Lester, who with wife Eunice owned a string of horses and trained his own stable. He pursued getting his license at a young age and was driving by the mid 1960s.
While always operating a public stable and focusing his driving efforts there, Vance was a longtime top catch driver throughout his career. When the Grand Circuit or New York Sire Stakes were in town, Vance was always sought out by the visiting trainers and usually found himself sitting behind one of the contenders in those races. Whereas Vance did occasionally did go out on the road to drive at some major stakes, he always kept the Buffalo-Batavia Circuit his home base of operations. Although he had many successful pacers, Dave was always considered a talented trotting man.
In his nearly 40 year harness racing career, Dave Vance amassed 2,894 wins and over $9 million dollars in purses, with the bulk of that accomplished on Western New York racetracks.
Dave Vance passed away on January 1, 2002 after a valiant battle with leukemia.
These three horsemen will be officially inducted along with nine yet to be named horsemen, three each from Vernon Downs, Batavia Downs, and Tioga Downs, at the actual Hall which will be housed at Tioga Downs.
The selections were made by Chapter members and an online vote where fans could voice their opinions. Voting for fans at the remaining three tracks is still open and available through a link at upstatenyushwa.com.
(USHWA)