Harness: Giwner, Taylor to Communicators Hall of Fame ballot

Derick Giwner and Ellen Taylor were selected as the two candidates advancing to this summer's balloting for the Communicators Hall Of Fame, as determined during the Saturday directors meeting of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA).

Derick Giwner is a two-time winner of the prestigious Hervey Award for writing who serves as editor for the Daily Racing Form's DRF Harness. He started his career at Sports Eye in 1996 and established the Form's DRF Harness brand in 2012. His weekly DRF Harness Racing Newsletter is must reading for many segments of the harness community.

In addition to his 2020 and 2023 Hervey Awards, Giwner has been honored with the Phil Pines Award and the Clyde Hirt Media Award, and he was named USHWAn of the Year in 2020. Derick is a member of the New York City Chapter of USHWA, has served as its Chapter Director on several occasions, and is chairman of USHWA's important Integrity Committee.

Tara Ellen Taylor has served for over 30 years as the Executive Director of the Harness Horse Youth Foundation, an industry organization which introduces young people to harness racing through hands-on involvement with horses, seeking to live up to the Foundation's theme of "Kids + Horses = Magic!" Starting in 1996, she has been the person behind the efforts of several summer camps run annually by the Foundation in association with racetracks and horsemen's groups, and is a contributor to both HHYF's many promotional and educational pieces and several trade publications.

Recently elected to the Indiana Harness Racing Hall of Fame and a many-time award winner (including USHWA's own prestigious Stan Bergstein Proximity Award in 2009), Ellen follows in the tradition of her mother Margot, who is an Immortal of the Hall of Fame.

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Derick Giwner and Ellen Taylor will go before the USHWA voters during the midsummer balloting for Communicators Hall Of Fame election, as will those nominees for the sport's Hall Of Fame during a July meeting of USHWA's Screening Committee, to be held in Goshen, New York. A nominee must get three-quarters of the yes-no votes in order to receive the grand honor. Announcements are usually made in the weeks before the Labor Day weekend.

A summary release of the Directors and Membership meetings of USHWA will be sent out this mid-week, after the honorees at the Dan Patch Awards Banquet, presented by Caesars Entertainment, get their rightful spotlight call in the media following the Sunday night banquet.

The United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) is the leading group of communicators about the Standardbred horse. USHWA conducts the official annual balloting for the sport's most prestigious honors: induction to the Hall of Fame and Communicators Hall of Fame, along with the selection of the Horse of the Year, Trotter and Pacer of the Year, and the leading divisional horses of each season. Each year USHWA hosts the Dan Patch Awards Banquet, honoring the best and brightest performers in North American harness racing. This banquet is the Association’s principal source of funding, and with generous financial support from the harness racing and breeding industry, USHWA is able to host the banquet at a world-class facility in a world-class manner.

--press release (USHWA)--