Martin Scharf will present the seventh annual Gallo Blue Chip Scholarships, named in honour of his great pacer, to Kayla Prentice and Michelle Galligan during the Meadowlands Racetrack’s Saturday, January 4 card.

Prentice earned a $15,000 award, while Galligan received a $5,000 college stipend. Scharf’s Gallo Blue Chip Scholarship educational grants have now exceeded $135,000. For additional information on the Gallo Blue Chip Scholarship and other Harness Horse Youth Foundation scholarships, head to hhyf.org.

Prentice attends Syracuse University, where she studies health and exercise science. She is the daughter Jessica and Howard Okusko Jr. Kayla is an Honours Graduate of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, where she captained the track and cross-country squads. Kayla has a wide-ranging record of community service, including work on ‘Relay For Life’ and volunteering with the K9 of Central New York Rescue. She also has experience working with standardbreds, often paddocking horses in the family’s stable.

Galligan is studying equine science at New Jersey’s Centenary College. Michelle also has experience riding and she has shadowed equine vets on their rounds and through surgeries. She graduated with an Advanced Regents Diploma from Pt. Jervis High School in June and spent her senior year taking several college level courses. She has spent part of the last four years working with the Ford Stable, and through that relationship actually worked hands-on with the great pacer in whose honour the scholarship is named.

(HHYF)