The Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in Goshen, New York, one of the nation’s finest sports museums and the repository of harness racing history, has been named the 2003 winner of Harness Tracks of America’s Stan Bergstein Messenger Award, the highest honor bestowed by the association of 39 major racing organizations in the U.S. and Canada.

HTA also announced six individuals it will honor on its Night of Champions at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Florida, Friday night, March 14.

Named as this year’s winners of the HTA Distinguished Service Awards are Stanley Sadinsky, chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission, and William Oberle, speaker pro tem of the Delaware House of Representatives.  Sadinsky, a professor of law at Queens College, has been a vigilant and strong protector of integrity in Ontario.  Oberle was largely responsible for the revitalization of harness racing in Delaware and on the eastern shore as the legislative proponent of video lottery terminals at Delaware’s racetracks.

A quartet of veteran contributors to the publicity of the sport will receive HTA’s Dan Patch medallions.  They are two mainstays of the United States Trotting Association, Hoof Beats editor Dean Hoffman and photographer Ed Keys;  Moira Fanning, president of the U.S. Harness Writers Association and publicist of the Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown;  and Bob Heyden, racing statistician of the Meadowlands who has raised the compilation of racing statistics to a high art. 

“No individual or organization has contributed more than the Museum to this sport’s welfare and tradition,” HTA president Chris McErlean of the Meadowlands said of this year’s Messenger winner.  “It has preserved the storied two-century history of the sport, and has done it in spectacular fashion.” The award carries a large magnificent bronze and marble statuette by renowned Texas sculptress Lisa Perry. 

Dean Hoffman is being honored, HTA’s Bergstein said, for his immense contributions to the literature of harness racing.  “No one has written more or more knowledgeably about the leading figures of the sport, human and equine.” 

Ed Keys has photographed the sport’s best horses and major owners, breeders, trainers and drivers from coast to coast for 38 years.

Moira Fanning, a former groom and publicist whose intelligence and dedication has helped elevate the Breeders Crown to international prominence, is the first woman ever elected to the presidency of the national harness writer’s organization.