Derick Giwner

I am fresh off a trip to Orlando to attend the United States Harness Writers Dan Patch Awards banquet. Well, I’m actually sitting in the airport in Orlando as I write this . . . details. San Pail won Trotter and Horse of the Year, while Foiled Again took home Pacer of the Year honors. The festivities ran quite long and attendance was down from 2010, but all in all it was a good night. I even came away with a Tim Tetrick bobblehead in the nightly raffle.

If you are reading my blog, by now you have probably realized that we are featuring plenty of Meadowlands content on an exclusive events page. Today the official announcement became public. DRF and the Meadowlands have joined forces to bring harness fans the best coverage possible. What does this mean for you?

One of my main goals as the man in charge of harness content for DRF.com and Harness Eye is to bring readers the content they want. Not just any run-of-the-mill stories, but editorial that makes you think, from experienced writers with ties throughout the harness community. With that in mind, I am proud to announce that Jay Bergman, the Editor of the former Sports Eye (now Harness Eye), will join the DRF.com team as well as grace the pages of the publication he contributed to for most of his life.

When I looked at the entries for this Friday, I could not help but notice the absence of the weekly 1 ½ mile race at the Meadowlands. What I originally viewed as a far-fetched attempt at something crazy has turned out to be a nice surprise. To date, the Meadowlands has carded three of these added-distance races and the results have been pleasing. Good prices and plenty of racing action has been the norm during these 14-horse marathons for $7,500 claimers.

Harness Eye past performances are now in the DRF store and available for download. I have been waiting for this moment for a long, long time and have been dying to talk about it for months now. Well, the gag order has been lifted and I can finally speak (type) out loud.