United States Trotting Association Executive Vice President Mike Tanner has been awarded the Dominic Frinzi Person of the Year Award by Harness Horseman International.
Tanner, 49, has been the helm of the USTA since late 2008 and is the youngest person at the time to fill that position.
The New Jersey native was first introduced to racing when visiting Liberty Bell Park in the mid-1970s, and spent time as a groom and hot walker at Philadelphia Park and Garden State Park. After graduating from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1988 and Bowling Green University in 1991, Tanner began his professional career as a Ladbroke's Detroit Race Course publicist in 1992.
Tanner has also served as director of marketing, media, and simulcasting, as assistant to the president, and as director of communications at Gulfstream Park from 1993-2005, and also worked for the Breeders' Cup, from 2001 through 2003.
In 2002, Tanner was a member of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Technology Group's Communications Task Force and in 2005 was director of racing operations at Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack, in Chester, Pa. He and his wife Gail have two sons.
Ron Battoni, who recently retired as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen's Association, is honoured with the HHI Appreciation Award. Battoni managed the PHHA's day-to-day operations, including contract negotiations, government relations, interfacing with the state commission and track officials and overseeing the PHHA staff.
The former horseman has been active in racing for more than four decades, and will continue to assist the PHHA in a reduced capacity for three to five years. During his tenure as a trainer/driver, from 1977 to 1987, he scored 394 wins and $760,738 in purse monies.
Battoni joined the PHHA in 1987 and helped lead it through a number of positive changes, including full-card simulcasting of out-of-state racetracks in the 1990s. .He also worked to implement the passage of the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act in 2004 which brought slot machines to Pennsylvania tracks and oversaw the development and opening of Harrah's Philadelphia Casino & Racetrack in 2007.
Writer Ken Weingartner is HHI's Clyde Hirt Media Award winner for this year. As the USTA's media relations manager, Weingartner has already earned numerous journalistic accolades, including the Phil Pines Award which was recently bestowed upon him from the Monticello-Goshen chapter of the US Harness Writer's Association. He also has awards from the New Jersey Press Association and the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Weingartner, who is in his 13th year with the USTA, is a central New Jersey native who got interested in harness racing via his father, who took him to Freehold Raceway as a child. After stints at the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and Allentown Messenger-Press, Weingartner joined the USTA in 2002. He won the Golden Pen Award from the Standardbred Marketing and Media Association in 2007.
All three gentlemen will be feted at the HHI Annual Awards Banquet at the Embassy Suites Resort, Deerfield Beach, Florida on Wednesday, March 9, 2016.
(Harness Horsemen International)