The United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) announced the five winners of its 2022 media awards on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
Kimberly Rinker and Bob Heyden were named winners of the 2022 John Hervey Awards for excellence in harness racing journalism while Mark Hall and Walter Wlodarczyk were named recipients of the George Smallsreed Awards for photography and Cujo Entertainment was selected winner of the Sam McKee Award for broadcasting.
The winners will be recognized at the Dan Patch Awards banquet on Feb. 19 at Rosen Shingle Creek resort in Orlando, Florida. Meadowlands Racetrack Chairman Jeffrey Gural is continuing his longstanding sponsorship of the awards by providing banquet tickets for the winners.
Rinker won in the feature writing category for her story, “A Tale of Two Survivors,” which appeared in the October 2022 issue of Hoof Beats magazine. The story focuses on horseman John “Duke” Sugg and his family’s trotter Yanks Dugout. This is Rinker’s second Hervey. Her previous award was also for feature writing.
Heyden won in the news/commentary division for his column, “The Incalculable Loss of Dave Brower,” which appeared in the Oct. 13 edition of Harness Racing Update. This is Heyden’s second Hervey. His previous award was also in the news/commentary division.
Honourable mentions in the feature writing categories went to Tim Bojarski for “Heavenly Horse” in the July issue of Hoof Beats, James Witherite for “Safe at Home” in the September issue of Hoof Beats and Dave Briggs for “There’s Still Some Magic Left in the Old Game” in the July 19 issue of Harness Racing Update.
In news/commentary, honourable mentions went to Ray Cotolo for “Pompano Presented a Peek at Harness Racing’s Grand Past” in the April 21 edition of DRF Harness Digest and Debbie Little for “Kings for a Weekend” in the Jan. 18 issue of Harness Racing Update.
The writing categories were judged by a panel consisting of longtime sports and feature writer Paul Franklin, Gambling.com Group stateside journalist Lou Monaco, former Philadelphia Inquirer Sports Editor John Quinn, and harness racing Communicators Hall of Fame electee and former Hervey winner Bob Roberts.
In the Smallsreed competitions, Hall won in the race/action category for his photograph “It’s Post Time,” which appeared in the August issue of Hoof Beats. Hall is an eight-time Smallsreed winner.
Wlodarczyk won in the feature category for his photograph “Pompano Sunset,” which appeared in the April 21 edition of DRF Harness Digest. This is Wlodarczyk’s first Smallsreed Award.
Honourable mentions in the race/action category went to Shelley Johnson for her photograph of a flock of birds landing on the infield of Eldorado Scioto Downs while horses race in the background and Jacob Cohen for a photograph of horses racing through the fog at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Johnson’s photo appeared Sept. 14 on Harnesslink and Cohen’s photo appeared Nov. 3 on Mohawk’s social media platforms.
In the feature category, honourable mention went to Clive Cohen for his photograph “The Long Shadow” that appeared June 2 on Mohawk’s social media platforms.
Judges for the photography categories were racetrack and newspaper photographer Bill Denver, former harness racing groom and longtime newspaper/magazine photographer Phil McAuliffe and longtime features photographer Jerry Millevoi.
In the McKee competition, Cujo Entertainment was honoured for its one-hour coverage of the Hambletonian, which appeared live on the Hambletonian Society’s YouTube channel on Aug. 6 and was later broadcast on CBS Sports Network. The show was produced by Curtis MacDonald and Cameron Chick as well as co-produced and directed by Luke vanBelkom. The show was hosted by Greg Blanchard, Dave Brower and Michael Carter.
Honourable mention went to Horse Racing Alberta (HRA) for its feature on the Fun for Fans charity initiative that was posted Sept. 22 on the HRA website and social media channels and later picked up by local media CTV Edmonton and Todayville.
Entries for the Sam McKee Award were judged by Kurt Becker, track announcer at Keeneland and an Eclipse Award-winning broadcaster.
(With files from USHWA)