Horse of the Year announcement schedule from USHWA

from the U.S. Harness Writers Association

The United States Harness Writers Association, the sport’s largest organization for communicators of the Standardbred sport, present the announcement schedule for the naming of the 2016 Horse of the Year, the Trotter and Pacer of the Year, and the various divisional award winners.

These announcements are made with the partnership of Hoosier Park, who is the title presenter of USHWA’s Dan Patch Awards banquet, to be held Sunday (Feb. 26) at the Planet Hollywood casino in Las Vegas, and with the USTA, who prepares the statistics mailed to eligible voters and then tallies the incoming voting.

On Thursday (Dec. 15) a press release will be coming from Harness Racing Communications shortly after 12 noon, listing the six winners in the various age/sex divisions for trotters. A similar release will be sent for pacers the next day, Friday (Dec. 16), again just after 12 noon.

On Monday (Dec. 19), at 12 noon, there will be an announcement of the Trotter and Pacer of the Year, followed by the naming of the 2016 Horse of the Year. This will be a live announcement, streamed over the Facebook pages of USHWA, Hoosier Park, and the Harness Racing FanZone. The show will be hosted by Emily Gaskin, Hoosier’s Race Marketing Manager and the winner of USHWA’s 2014 Breakthrough Award for an up-and-coming person in industry management or communications.

A full press release detailing the particulars of these announcements will be sent out by HRC immediately after the awards are announced on Monday.

The winners of the “human” Dan Patch Awards (which do include the Broodmares of the Year) will be announced during the rest of the week after Monday’s Horse of the Year announcement.