The United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) announced on Thursday, Aug. 6 the election of Al Libfeld, Åke Svanstedt and Russell Williams to the greatest honour in the industry, membership in the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.

USHWA has also elected the late Barry Lefkowitz and Kim Rinker to the pinnacle of their profession, membership in the Communicators Hall of Fame.

Al Libfeld has long been one of North America’s leading owners and breeders. His statistics in the most prestigious races of the industry are ample proof of that statement: seventh among both owners and breeders in the all-time money category for the definitive Breeders Crown championship series, where his horses have had 11 Crown victories, and also a winner of the Hambletonian and four Hambletonian Oaks. He was a winner in the voting for the 2018 Stan Bergstein Proximity Award, the highest honour decided solely by members of USHWA, for overall quality impact upon the sport, and has won breeding awards on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border.

A building company magnate, Libfeld and his early racehorse ownership experiences may not have been memorable, but when Dream Away won the 1997 Meadowlands Pace for Libfeld and partners Sam Goldband and Marvin Katz, Libfeld entered a stratum from which he has not departed for almost 30 years, and has expanded to include a parallel breeding operation. A co-presenting sponsor of the 2019 Breeders Crown, Libfeld continues to pursue success at the highest level with his three-year-old trotting filly Storybook Love, last year’s Crown champion in her division and an Oaks finalist.

Åke Svanstedt was already a Hall of Famer and five-time Trainer of the Year in his native Sweden, where he had more than 5,000 victories as both a trainer and a driver. In 2014, he sought a new challenge, so he and wife Sarah set up operations in North America. It did not take long for him to establish himself, as Sebastian K S would soon go out and trot a 1:49 mile at Pocono Downs, then the fastest mile ever on the gait.

The intervening years have only built up the Svanstedt stable as a force to be reckoned with at any level of trotting competition on this side of the Atlantic. The stable has 12 Breeders Crown winners to its credit (sometimes Svanstedt has multiple entries in rich finals like the Crowns, so some have been handled by top catch-drivers); three Hambletonians, a Hambletonian Oaks and a Hambletonian Maturity; two Yonkers International Trots; two Trotters of the Year in Sebastian K and Jiggy Jog S; and the Dan Patch Trainer of the Year award in 2023. In just 13 campaigns in North America, Svanstedt has trained the winners of more than $68 million USD.

Russell Williams has one of the best “pedigrees” in all of harness racing, tracing back to his grandfather Lawrence Sheppard, founder of the sport’s leading nursery, Hanover Shoe Farms, and a member of the Hall of Fame. Pedigrees, along with knowledge and service, are essential ingredients for success in harness racing, and Williams has applied all in his decades of management of Hanover Shoe Farms, which has been the sport’s No. 1 breeder since records began to be kept in 1948, and the Standardbred Horse Sales Company, the annual Harrisburg auction.

Williams, a law graduate of the University of Richmond, has been influential on many levels of harness racing’s top organizations. He has been a longtime United States Trotting Association (USTA) director, and since 2017, he has been president of the USTA (as was grandfather Sheppard), taking strong stands on many of the complex issues that challenge the sport in a competitive market. Russell was the 2014 Bergstein Proximity Award. And while he says his “is a modest owning/breeding operation,” it has produced $3.5 million winner Nuncio and other talented performers. And his concern about horses whose racing and breeding careers are over is legendary.

Libfeld, Svanstedt and Williams will be joined in entrance to the Hall of Fame by Carter Duer, who was elected into the Hall through the special Veterans designation in July.

From left to right: Libfeld, Svanstedt, Williams, Rinker and Lefkowitz.

A fan of harness racing since a youth, Barry Lefkowitz came up in the sport through the famous Monticello Raceway publicity cohort, then held a number of publicity and administrative positions throughout the East and Midwest USA and Canada. He made his primary publicity mark at Roosevelt Raceway, the sport’s flagship track in its day, where he was responsible for the promotion of the Roosevelt International Trot, which involved everything from helping to secure horses to making sure of their accommodations once in Gotham, to getting the word out about the crack field of the world’s best trotters.

Lefkowitz later went into the insurance business while still performing a number of Officer functions for USHWA, including a two-year term as President. His understanding of modern financial techniques along with his personal yet aggressive style transformed USHWA’s financial stability. Though he was ill for a period beforehand, the sport was still stunned when he passed away just a couple of weeks after the 2025 Dan Patch Award banquet.

Kim Rinker had in her biography submitted for Communicators Hall consideration a total of 13 publications to which she makes or made regular contributions (that number might be low), three of which resulted in her winning Hervey Writing Awards. She worked for four racetracks and numerous organizations of the sport in executive roles. She authored 12 books (and a 13th is in the works). She has bridged the transition to today’s journalism by developing formidable internet website skills. And one accomplishment was not mentioned: she actually was a part-owner of a Preakness winner!

All of this comes before the many capacities in which she has served USHWA, including President, Chair of the Board (twice), contributor to several USHWA committees, and Chair of the Journal Committee, the last-named a monumental undertaking adding greatly to the Dan Patch Awards dinner. She is a former USHWAn of the Year, and now her work and legacy reaches its ultimate recognition in entrance to the Communicators Hall.

Duer, Libfeld, Svanstedt, Williams, Lefkowitz and Rinker will be honoured in two separate 2027 ceremonies. Official induction into the Hall of Fame and Communicators Hall of Fame will be on Sunday, July 4 in Goshen, New York. The first formal recognition will occur at the USHWA’s Dan Patch Awards banquet, to be held at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2027. More information on these events will be available on usharnesswriters.com and harnessmuseum.com in the upcoming months.

The United States Harness Writers Association, the foremost group of communicators about the Standardbred horse, conducts the official annual balloting for the sport’s most prestigious honours: election to the Hall of Fame and Communicators Hall of Fame, and the selection of the U.S. Horse of the Year, Trotter and Pacer of the Year, and all of the Dan Patch Awards.

Each year USHWA hosts the Dan Patch Awards Banquet, honouring the best performers in North American harness racing. This banquet is the Association’s principal source of funding, and with financial support from the harness racing industry, USHWA is able to host the banquet at a world-class facility in a world-class manner.

(USHWA; photos of Libfeld, Svanstedt and Russell by USTA, provided photo of Rinker, USHWA file photo of Lefkowitz)