The fan-voted Railbird Recognition balloting is winding down for 2012 and your opportunity to select the 'Horseperson of the Year' will end on Monday, December 31 at midnight.
The balloting for 'Racing Moment of the Year' was conducted from December 1 through December 15. Winners for both categories will be announced on Thursday, January 3, 2013 and will be presented their awards during the Dan Patch Awards Banquet in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Sunday, March 3, 2013.
There are five people that have been nominated for their outstanding accomplishments during the year so the next three days will have a lot to do with deciding who the fans think was the most impressive in 2012. You can vote on the USTA homepage (ustrotting.com) by scrolling down to where the web poll is normally located.
In 2012 Dave Palone became the all-time winningest driver in harness racing history, Linda Toscano had a season for the ages with Chapter Seven, Market Share and Heston Blue Chip, Sam Landy brought more than 1,000 new people to harness racing and distributed over $10,000 to racing related charities, Dave Miller topped $10 million dollars in earnings for a record eighth consecutive year and Scott Zeron became the youngest driver ever to win the Little Brown Jug.
Who do you think is the most deserving individual to be named horseperson of the year? Vote now!
If you would like to have more detailed back stories for the nominees, check out the Railbird Recognition Facebook page. There you will find archived news stories of some of the biggest events for the whole year.
All Dan Patch Award winners will be honoured Sunday, March 3, at the Westin Beach Resort and Spa in Fort Lauderdale, the climatic event of Harness Racing Congress VI that will run throughout the weekend. Information about the banquet, the Congress, and related topics can be obtained by going to the harness writers’ website, ushwa.org.
(USHWA)