Phillip A. Pines, 82, the longtime director of the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, himself a member of the Communicators Hall of Fame, passed away on Dec. 16, 2008 in Middletown, New York after a long illness.
For many years Pines had been the sports prime historian.
“I acquired the knowledge of the history of harness racing through the extensive research and requests for information that come to the museum,” Pines once told Hall of Fame writer Joe Goldstein in an interview many years ago.
Having lived his entire life in the “Cradle of the Trotter”, Goshen, New York where harness racing was part of the local fabric, it was little wonder that Pines would become involved in the sport.
An expert painter, Mr. Pines saw his first Hambletonian at Good Time Park--Goshen’s the kite-shaped mile track--in 1935 the year in which the great Greyhound was victorious.
A graduate of the Goshen school system he volunteered as an air cadet at age 17 and ended up the war at the message center at Hickham Field in Hawaii with his main duty designing posters for the Air Force in the Pacific Theater.
It was through his painting of trotting horses on ties that got him involved in the racing business in his hometown.
When Elliott Emerson was appointed the first director of the Hall of Fame of the Trotter Mr. Pines was hired to set-up the first exhibits. In 1963 Mr. Pines became the director of the Hall, a position he held for over 35 years.
Through his tenure as director Mr. Pines became associated with the who’s who of harness racing including men like Tom Murphy, William H. Cane and E. Roland Harriman.
A multiple John Hervey Award winner for writing and broadcasting, Pines’ famous "Cracker Barrel Sessions” with the famous personalities in the sport, are legendary, as is his “Complete Book of Harness Racing,” which has had multiple printings since its he first wrote it back in the 1970’s.
A longtime member of the United States Harness Writers Association Mr.Pines was a past president of the Monticello-Goshen Chapter and served as National USHWA President during 1983-1984.
For years he served as master of ceremonies at Hall of Fame Banquet on the lawn of the museum and he always closed the banquet singing, “And now we say goodbye to all our family…M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.”
Of utmost importance to Mr. Pines was his family. Up in years when he and his lovely wife Jane had a daughter, Jennie, Mr. Pines, with tongue in cheek claimed the title of “Aged Stallion of the Year.”
Always involved in the community he was also a deeply religious man. He served as Clerk of Session at the First Presbyterian Church of Goshen and later as a lay-preacher.
There arguably was no greater gentleman, in every sense of the word than Phil Pines. The racing world is fortunate to have a man of his caliber devote his life to the standardbred sport.
Funeral arrangements have not been completed but a memorial service will be held in Goshen on January 10.
(With files from Monticello)