David Carr, the United States Trotting Association’s director of Information and Research for the last 24 years and an inexhaustible source of information in that role
, has been named the 2009 winner of Harness Tracks of America’s Stan Bergstein Messenger Award, the track association’s highest honour.
Carr, 57, joined USTA as a publicity and Hoof Beats staff writer in 1982. Three years later, he proposed creation of the information and research department, developed it into a superb resource for all journalists and others writing about the sport of harness racing, and now runs it as one of the finest sports information services on the continent.
The Messenger trophy, named for the English thoroughbred that was brought to America in 1788 and founded the trotting breed in the U.S. as well as siring a strong thoroughbred line, is presented annually and the winners now form a roster of accomplishment in the sport.
Although Carr works for USTA, the breed registry of harness racing in Columbus, Ohio, he has become a key contributor to management projects of HTA, the track association headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. Working in close online cooperation with HTA’s executive assistant Brody Johnson on surveys, studies and reports, Carr produces raw data at USTA that Johnson then analyzes and uses for valuable management data for HTA.
Stan Bergstein, executive vice president of HTA for 48 years, whose name shares the Messenger award, said he had encountered no one in that long span who ever came close to Carr as an information technologist. Carr holds B.A. and M.L.S. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and he and his wife Susan have two grown children.
Carr's Messenger Award will be presented as a highlight of the Night of Stars awards dinner, a feature of the Racing Congress being held February 2-6 at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
(HTA)