Harness: Bill O'Donnell selected as USHWA'S Bergstein Proximity Award winner

William (Bill) O’Donnell, who had one of the greatest careers a driver has ever had, and since retiring from the sulky has stayed a major influence as president of the Central Ontario Standardbred Alliance (COSA), has been voted the highest honor decided solely by members of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), the Stan Bergstein – Proximity Award.

The trotter Proximity retired as the richest-ever Standardbred a couple of years before an award was named for her in 1952. Bergstein, the only “double Hall of Famer” and himself a Proximity winner in 1976, had his name added to the top award after his passing in 2011.

Bill O’Donnell, like a disproportionate number of harness immortals, is a native of Maritime Canada, working his way down to Foxboro and Saratoga. He then set his sights on the sport’s flagship track, The Meadowlands, and Bill and John Campbell soon became synonymous with excellence in Jersey and on the Grand Circuit, much as an earlier pair of “Golddust Twins” – Stanley Dancer and Billy Haughton – shone in their day.

It was Haughton, then still a top-rate driver, who provided one of the sport’s signal moments when he took himself off driving the mighty Nihilator in the 1984 Woodrow Wilson Pace in favor of catch-driver O’Donnell, competing nightly and in the peak of form. A year later, O’Donnell became the first driver ever to win $10 million in a single season, and he regularly piloted world champions such as Prakas, Napoletano, Valley Victory, and Camtastic.

Tragically, O’Donnell and Haughton’s names would be linked one last time, after Haughton was killed in a 1986 racing accident. O’Donnell and Campbell took upon themselves to be among the leaders in a campaign mandating more protective helmets, and the fruits of this venture were immediately realized and continue to this day.

O’Donnell moved back to his native Canada in 2001 and largely retired from driving and training; in the sulky Bill guided 5445 winners who brought home $90,672,526 (with the vast majority of this earned between 1980 and 2000).

In 2009 he co-founded and was named president of the Central Ontario Standardbred Association, which as an early task negotiated a horsemen’s contract with the Woodbine Entertainment Group. COSA has a dozen representatives at Ontario racetracks; has horsemen’s benefits and benevolence programs; and spearheads a successful and cutting-edge marketing and television force, although the television arm is now run independently.

O’Donnell is a well-respected industry leader, serving on several prestigious boards, and having a firm grasp on the sport’s major issues. He is also one of its more eloquent speakers and raconteurs; few major figures have escaped a pithy, wry statement or two from “Billy O” at some point.

Bill O’Donnell will be recognized at the 2026 Dan Patch Awards Banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment, which will honor the best of the best of harness racing, both human and equine. The Banquet will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2026 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida. Sponsorship information for the Banquet can be obtained from Shawn Wiles at swiles@rwcatskills.com; advertising in the souvenir Journal can be arranged through Kim Rinker at trotrink@aol.com; tickets through Judy Davis-Wilson, zoe8874@aol.com; for room reservations, click on this hotel link. More information about the Banquet and associated USHWA meetings that weekend will soon be available at www.usharnesswriters.com.

-edited release (USHWA)