The Hall of Fame Screening Committee of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), after meeting with a select group of Harness Racing Museum Trustees, announced that Ed Lohmeyer has been elected to the Harness Racing Hall of Fame, through a Veterans designation, and that Jim Campbell, Joe Faraldo and David McDuffee would be the Hall of Fame ballot candidates for this summer’s election.
Lohmeyer becomes a direct member of the Hall of Fame through the Veterans provision, which permits the Screening Committee to make a direct assignment of a person 70 years of age or older who has made a truly notable contribution to harness racing.
Edward H. Lohmeyer Sr., best known as Eddie, was born into one of the biggest and best harness racing “clans,” that of his father Edward F. and brother Jeff, along with the sprawling Manzi family of the Monticello, New York area, which has produced Hall Of Famer Cat and Communicators Hall Of Famer John.
Bypassing college, Lohmeyer first developed himself into one of his era’s top catch-drivers at a time when trainer-drivers were still very important, winning titles at several East Coast tracks. But he soon developed a talent as an outstanding trainer as well, starting with his dad’s Eddy Jeff, and built up a client list that included Bob Tucker (a Lohmeyer patron for over 40 years), John Stoddard (30+ years) and Bill Simon, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. The length of time he has enjoyed with his patrons speaks to the ability and dependability of “Steady Eddie.”
Top horses associated with Lohmeyer include Pacific Rocket, Pacific Fella, Landslide, Mickie Rodney and Skipper Dexter. Now retired from active training and driving, Lohmeyer and his wife, famed equine surgeon Dr. Patty Hogan, have established Pheasant Hill Farms on the site of the former Perretti Farms.
Campbell, Faraldo and McDuffee will go before the Hall of Fame voters, who are made up of eligible members of USHWA and all members of the Hall Of Fame, this summer; if they secure 75 per cent of the yes-no votes of the electorate, they will join Lohmeyer as inductees to the Hall next summer. Also on the summer ballot will be Communicators Hall Of Fame candidates Tim Bojarski and Dave Brower.
Jim Campbell focused attention on his many stellar years of conditioning racehorses when, in 2022, he sent out the winner of the Hambletonian, Cool Papa Bell, and Hambo Oaks, Fashion Schooner, on the same day, only the third trainer to do so. He also joined the ranks of Billy Haughton, Joe O’Brien and Jimmy Takter as horsemen who have trained two Hambletonian and two Hambo Oaks winners. That impressive campaign helped Campbell earn the Trainer of the Year award from USHWA.
Campbell hails from an Ontario elite harness racing family that started with Canadian Hall Of Fame Duncan Campbell and has progressed through father Jack and brother/Hall Of Fame driver/Hambletonian Society president John – John and Jim combined to win the 1995 Hambletonian with Tagliabue. In 1987, Campbell became “established” with the pacer Run The Table, in a stable that has focused in recent campaigns on developing young stakes trotters while capturing six Breeders Crown championships.
Campbell is like Lohmeyer in that his patrons tend to stay with him for a long and mutually-profitable time. Campbell has trained for Jules Siegel and his late wife Arlene, as Fashion Farms, for going on 30 years, and with Scott Farber since Run The Table’s stellar days.
Joe Faraldo is the leader of the Standardbred Owners Association of New York (SOANY), a group which has been at the forefront of fighting vigorously for horsemen’s rights; a lawyer by profession who has taken on many cases pro bono, Faraldo once argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Just about every issue facing SOANY has seen Faraldo “on point,” with issues involving the “essential labour force” the priority.
Faraldo’s involvement at the highest level of harness racing’s leadership also extends to his 30+ years as a Director of the U.S. Trotting Association; he is currently in his second stint as Chairman of the Board of the USTA. His high-profile work has helped him win numerous awards, including USHWA’s Stan Bergstein Proximity Award in 2019, and several awards from Harness Horsemen International.
Faraldo has also been an important force in the growth of amateur driving races in the United States and has represented his country in numerous overseas competitions. It was with the contacts he made with the power structure in other countries that helped the $1 million Yonkers International Trot be restored to the international free-for-all calendar in 2015 after an absence of two decades.
David McDuffee, an insurance agent by trade, entered harness racing in the 1980s with partner Tom Walsh and has expanded his Standardbred “footprint” as an owner by several degrees of magnitude in the intervening years, with seven Breeders Crown victories, two Little Brown Jugs and three Kentucky Filly Futurities numbering among his successes.
His success in the Filly Futurity highlights the major emphasis McDuffee has given his operation through the 21st century: putting together a small but elite broodmare band that did well on the racetrack and continued to do well in the breeding shed. Their names are familiar – Pizza Dolce, Bella Dolce and 2013 Horse of the Year Bee A Magician.
Continuing this trotting mare tradition for McDuffee is current star Bella Bellini, a distaff McDuffee also bred. Unspectacular at two, she exploded during her sophomore form, earning U.S. divisional honours, and continued her sharpness into 2022, when she was named U.S. Trotter of the Year. Bella Bellini and her bankroll, in excess of $2 million, continue to grow in 2023 with hard-knocking efforts against the best of her age bracket, male and female.
U.S. Hall of Fame candidates Jim Campbell, Joe Faraldo and David McDuffee
Further inquiries can be directed to USHWA at [email protected].
(USHWA)