THE LIVING HALL OF FAME:
Hal Jones
Dave Palone
Bunny Lake
Varenne
IMMORTALS HALL OF FAME:
Alden Goldsmith
Richard Stone Reeves
Dr. Harry Zweig
Three Diamonds
COMMUNICATORS' CORNER:
Murray Brown
Jim Moran
We will also recognize 2010 Pinnacle Award Honoree and creator of the Hall of Fame figurines, sculptor/artist Bev Lopez, and the 2010 Harness Racing Museum Amateur Driving Champion Todd Whitney will receive the Museum's gratitude for providing the most drivers' fees to the institution this year.
The Hall of Fame inductions will have their bucholic flavor, taking place on the museum lawn as they have for more than half a century. Cocktails will launch the proceedings at 5:30 pm in the William Haughton Memorial Hall followed by dinner. Induction ceremonies commence at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $100 each. Call Kim Green at 845-294-6330 for reservations and more information.
Meet the 2010 Hall of Fame Inductees:
Hal S. Jones has devoted a lifetime to the business of breeding trottng and pacing horses. In the early 1960s, he pioneered the use of artificial insemination when breeding horses. His Cameo Hills Farms has the distinction of having produced 2008 Hambletonian winner Deweycheatumnhowe, 3,1:50.4 ($3,155,178).
Dave Palone is now the only driver in history to have won the Harness Tracks of America's Driver of the Year award six times. His 13,655 wins place him third all-time in North America. To date, Palone has earned over $82 million in purses, while garnering, since 1989, an ongoing streak of 21 Meadows' consecutive dash titles.
Bunny Lake (nominated as racehorse), p:2,1:54; 3,1:51s; 4,1:49.4; 5,1:50.3s, 6,1:49s ($2,843,476) Bay Mare, 1998 (Precious Bunny - Lake Nona - Abercrombie)
Bunny Lake earned more than $2.8 million during her racing career, retiring the second-richest pacing mare of all time. Highlights of her career include being named the 2001 Horse of the Year by the US Harness Writers' Association and winning 19 of 21 starts (18 in a row), never finishing worse than second in that year. In 2002 Bunny Lake $400,049 that year as well as lowering her record to 1:49.4.
Varenne (nominated as racehorse) 6,1:51.1; 7, 1:51.3f ($5,636,255) Bay Horse, 1995 (Waikiki Beach - Ialmaz - Zebu)
Varenne, a paternal grandson of 2003 Hall of Famer Speedy Somali, is the richest trotter of all tiem and the fastest all-age and aged trotter on a five-eights mile track (1:51.3). in 2001, He became the first European horse to win a Breeders Crown and even set a world record of 1:51.1 in the process. He also stands as the first foreign trotter to be elected France's Horse of the Year and took the USTA's Trotting Horse of the Year title.
2010 Immortal Inductee Alden Goldsmith (1820-1886) was the proprietor of Walnut Grove Farm and best known for his development of the famous Immortal Volunteer and Immortal Goldsmith Maid. Goldsmith also took an active roll in the early administration of the sport of harness racing, serving as a prominent figure within the Turf Congress and the National Association of Trotting Hourse Breeders and assisting with the organization of The National Trotting Association.
2010 Immortal Inductee Richard Stone Reeves (1919-2005), was described by The New York Times as "one of the premier eequine artists in the world." Not afraid to leave his studio, Reeves regularly traveled to tracks and training facilities to study his four-legged subjects and talk to their owners, trainers and drivers, to better understand their horses' personalities. The result was a lifetime of stunning portraits that magnificently captured the character and individuality of each equine subject.
2010 Immortal Inductee Dr. Harry M. Zweig (1914-1977) Dr. Harry Zweig was the founder of Middlebrook Farm in Nassau, NY, breeding and raising Standardbreds eligible to compete in New York-sired racing events. In 1965 he was an instrumental figure in the passing of NY State's Laverne Law, which tapped in the the state's... gambling tax revenues to bring money back into the Standardbred industry and provided the foundation for the first state-bred racing program, the New York Sire Stakes.
2010 Immortal Inductee Three Diamonds p.3,1:53.1 ($735,759) (1979-1995) Three Diamonds took victories in nine of her 10 freshman year starts and in her sophmore year too sixteen wins out of twenty-one starts, fifteen of which were under 1:58. Her lifetime earnings were $735,759 and was named three-year-old Pacing Filly of the Year. At her retirement she held or shared world records on all three size tracks for three-year-old filly pacers, as well as having matched Niatross' all-age two-heat record of 3:47.3.
Harness Racing Hall of Fame Communicators' Corner 2010 Inductee M. Murray Brown - Murray Brown has been the public relations director for Hanover Shoe Farms in Pennsylvania since 1967. Since 1972 he has also served as vice-president and general manager of the Standardbred Horse Sales Company, operators of the continent's largest yearling sale in Harrisburg, PA Through the mid-1990s, Brown wrote all the pedigrees for the company's sales catalog, famously known as "The Black Book." He is also regarded as one of North America's leading experts on the subject of Standardbred breeding. The Canadian Racing Hall of Fame honored its "native son" with induction into its ranks in 2003.
Harness Racing Hall of Fame Communicators' Corner 2010 Inductee Jim Moran Jim Moran is Vernon Downs announcer, a position held since 1965. He became the track's publicity director in 1975 and was elected to the Board of Directors of Vernon Down's parents company, Mid-State Raceway, Inc. in 1986, serving until March 2002. He also became the corporation's vice-president, assistant secretary and secretary. Moran is a past president and chairman of the board of the North American Harnes Publicists Association and was the group's Golden Pen Award Recipient in 1990. He is a member of the Vernon Chapter-USHWA (now the Upstate NY Chapter) since the mid-1970s and the secretary/treasurer since 1978. Moran was inducted into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
2010 Harness Racing Museum Amateur Driving Champion Todd Whitney Todd Whitney is the owner of Whitney & Sons Concrete Company and enjoys his work and racing stock, driving his Standardbreds in amateur and non-amateur events at Maine's Cumberland Fairgrounds, Scarborough Downs and Plumridge Racecourse, MA, as well as other racetracks around the country. In 2009 Whitney enjoyed the best season of his racing career with 30 wins, 32 seconds and 17 thirds in 197 starts, he was among the leaders in amateur competition. In the same year, he was named USHWA's National Amateur Driver of the Year. With 101 lifetime amateur victories under his belt, Whitney has earned the respect of his peers.
