Evan Pattak and Pohla Smith, the husband-and-wife team which has been the “First Family” of Pennsylvania harness racing communications for more than four decades, have been selected to receive the Mary Lib Miller Award, the highest honour annually given by the Keystone Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA).
Keystone USHWA will also honour T C I, as Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Horse of the Year; Todd Schadel, with the Pennsylvania Trainer/Driver of the Year Award; Greg Wasiluk, with the Unsung Hero Award; George Napolitano Jr., with the Special Achievement Award; and the Rocky Top Stable, with the Small Stable of the Year Award.
Pattak and Smith were both horse owners earlier in their lifetimes, so both brought to their writing a special sense of the Standardbred and the resources needed by the people who take care of them. This understanding, enhanced by their unique journalistic talent, brought each a John Hervey Award for News/Commentary Writing – Smith in 2002, Pattak in 2009. Both have remained members of the Keystone USHWA Chapter and both are on the committee overseeing the judgment of the yearly journalism awards.
Pattak has most recently been a part of the publicity arm of the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association (MSOA) and writing a column for Hoof Beats magazine. Smith retired after a long career as a pioneering woman reporter in what can be a very “closed” world of major league sports, including harness racing. The combined efforts of the two have helped Pennsylvania harness racing maintain a high profile on the national and international scene with their insightful reportage, and are honoured for their accomplishments with the Mary Lib Miller Award.
T C I did what no other male trotter has ever done in the history of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes: win his divisional Sire Stakes Championship event at both two and three. (He’s also only the second male to pull off the feat, joining pacer Satin Town’s sweep way back in 1995-96.) T C I never lost a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes race, winning three preliminaries (he was the top prelim point winner) and the final at Pocono during a two-year-old year where overall he earned a baby colt record $1,238,708 USD, then winning two prelims and the final, again at Pocono, in his three-year-old campaign.
Trained by Ron Burke for Burke Racing Stable, Hatfield Stables, Knox Services and Weaver Bruscemi, and driven primarily by David Miller, T C I will stand at stud in 2025 at Midland Acres.
Todd Schadel has been the dominant force on the Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes circuit the last few summers, and in 2024 he drove 97 winners and trained 93 visitors to the fairs’ winner's circle. These achievements contributed greatly in his topping the North American ranks for horsepeople who had between 300 and 499 starts, with “batting averages” of .448 in UDR and .480 in UTR. And Schadel recently earned the 2,000 win of his driving career with Internationalcraze, a solid campaigner for him at two and three.
Greg Wasiluk has been involved in harness racing for 60 years – ever since his father bought a horse when Greg was aged five. Wasiluk has run the gamut of racetrack positions, from trainer/driver (including horses for the Haughton Stable), starter, associate judge and currently the horsemen’s representative at Pocono. One constant in Wasiluk’s career has been his positive attitude, his willingness to “go the extra mile,” despite many years of caring for an elderly mother and a challenged daughter – anybody who can do his work consistently well in the face of adversity is a “Good Guy’ for sure.
George Napolitano Jr. has won 45 horsemen’s crowns at the two eastern Pennsylvania tracks, Pocono and Harrah’s Chester/Philadelphia, with 33 driving and training titles at Pocono in northeast Pennsylvania and 12 more at the southeast Pennsylvania’s Harrah’s facility. This past season, he finished second in the dash driving standards to two of the sport’s stars, Matt Kakaley at Pocono and Tim Tetrick at Philly (at the latter oval winning 17 races on the last five cards to narrow Tetrick’s final edge to two), and his combined 2024 victory total in Pennsylvania was 440, more than any other driver within the confines of the Keystone State.
The “Rocky Top Stable,” more formally known as Brocious Racing Inc. as following in the standards set by the late Lefty Brocious while naming their horses with “RT” in the lead position, continued in a winning transformation mode during 2024. Trainer Tom Loughry Jr. had his best campaign ever with 42 wins overall (35 at the fairs), earnings of $269,159 USD, and a trainer rating of .373 off a 62 per cent 1-2-3 finish record – and Loughry even recorded his first two driving triumphs in 2024!
The Keystone award winners will be presented their awards in trackside ceremonies during the Pennsylvania ovals’ racing seasons.
(USHWA)