Dave Briggs swept the writing categories in the 2017 John Hervey Awards competition, capturing the feature division with a story written for ‘Hoof Beats’ magazine and the news/commentary division with a story written for ‘Harness Racing Update,’ the U.S. Harness Writers Association announced Monday.

In addition, the U.S. Trotting Association’s ustrotting.com was selected the winner of the Hervey Awards for excellence in harness racing broadcasting and Chris Gooden and Jacob Cohen were named the winners in the George Smallsreed Awards for excellence in harness racing photography.

The winners will be recognized at the Dan Patch Awards banquet on February 25 in Orlando. Meadowlands Racetrack Chairman Jeffrey Gural is continuing his longstanding sponsorship of the Hervey and Smallsreed awards by providing banquet tickets for the winners.

Briggs won in the feature writing category for his story on John Campbell’s retirement, ‘End of an Era,’ which appeared in the October issue of Hoof Beats. Click here to read the story.

He won in the news/commentary category for his story, ‘What the heck happened in the Hambletonian,’ which appeared in the August 12 issue of Harness Racing Update. Click here to read the story.

With the two wins, Briggs extended his record for Hervey honours to 11.

Honourable mentions in the feature category went to Steve Montemarano and Rich Fisher.

Montemarano was recognized for his story on trainer Dan Ater and his battle with cancer, ‘Picture of Courage,’ which appeared in the November issue of Hoof Beats. Fisher was recognized for his story on driver Mike Lachance’s retirement days, ‘Out of the Spotlight,’ which appeared in the August issue of Hoof Beats.

Honourable mentions in the news/commentary category went to Gordon Waterstone and Darryl Kaplan.

Waterstone was recognized for his story on the Hambletonian, ‘Swedish Surprise,’ which appeared in the August 16 issue of ‘The Horseman And Fair World’ magazine. Kaplan was recognized for three segments of his series, ‘On the Road: Horse Racing 250,’ that was published on the Standardbred Canada website between June 30 and July 2. To read Kaplan’s five entries from the time period in question click the following links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The writing categories were judged by a panel consisting of former ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ Sports Editor John Quinn, ‘BloodHorse’ Racing Editor Alicia Wincze Hughes, and ‘Associated Press’ racing writer Mike Farrell.

In the broadcast division, ustrotting.com was honoured for its coverage of John Campbell’s retirement. The video was produced by Rich Johnston and the reporters were T.J. Burkett, Allison Conte, and Dave Briggs.

Honourable mention went to CBS Sports Network’s coverage of the Sam McKee Memorial, with a tribute to McKee, produced by Oz Colon. The segment was co-produced by Peter Lasser.

The broadcast category was judged by multiple Emmy Award and Hervey Award-winning producer Bruce Casella, who has covered Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing throughout his career.

In the Smallsreed competition, Gooden won in the race action category for his photograph ‘Shadow Racing,’ which appeared in the December issue of Hoof Beats.

Cohen won in the feature category for his sunset photograph of a horse on the track at Woodbine Racetrack that appeared on the Woodbine Facebook page on October 19.

Honourable mention in the race action category went to Clive Cohen for his photograph ‘Fog,’ which appeared on the Woodbine Facebook and Instagram pages. Honourable mention in the feature division went to Michael Burns for his photograph ‘Into the Sun,’ which appeared on the Woodbine website.

Judges for the photography categories were racetrack and newspaper photographer Bill Denver, multiple Eclipse Award-winning photographer Barbara Livingston, and former harness racing groom and longtime newspaper/magazine photographer Phil McAuliffe.

For more information about the Dan Patch Awards banquet, visit ushwa.org.

(USHWA)