News and Events

ERIE, PA, August 28 – Mega-owner Lou Guida and Chuck Coon, the "guru" of harness track maintenance, have been elected to the Living Hall of Fame of harness racing, the sport’s highest honor, in voting conducted by the U.S. Harness Writers Association. Guida received more than the necessary 75% from the voters, while Coon easily cleared the 2/3 total of USHWA directors needed in the senior category.

Also, handily elected to the Communicators Corner were Alan Prince, longtime treasurer of USHWA, and in the senior category Murray Janoff, at 91 years young the sole surviving founder of the Writers Association.

Lou Guida, a Wall Street broker, revolutionized the owning of harness horses from the early 80s onwards, bringing in rich partners and spending big money to acquire champion horses, whether as yearlings or as "ready-made" horses. Colorful, and never at a loss for a quote, Guida owned several Harness Horses of the Year such as Mack Lobell and Nihilator, and revolutionized every facet of the sport with which he was associated.

Chuck Coon also revolutionized his chosen trade, the design and maintenance of harness tracks. His innovations in the banking of turns, track composition, and other areas of his craft brought new insights into racetrack care, and improved the racing tremendously at countless ovals that enlisted Coon’s expertise. Coon’s sons have taken over the family mantle of first-rate track maintenance and starting services.

Alan Prince was a travel reporter for the Miami Herald who talked his boss into writing about a fondness of his – harness racing – when Pompano Park opened in the 60s. Also a writing teacher, Prince has been noted for his prudence as the longtime treasurer of the U.S. Harness Writers Association, of which he is a lifetime member.

Little did Murray Janoff think, when he joined a group of his harness writer friends from metro New York newspapers over hamburgers one night in 1947 to form a writers organization, that sixty years later he would be numbered among the sport’s elite in the Communicators Corner. The spry nonagenarian still attends meeting of USHWA near his retirement home in Florida.

Guida, Coon, Prince, and Janoff will be feted twice for their honors – at the USHWA National Awards Dinner on January 27, 2008 at Dover Downs, and on the first weekend of July at the Harness Racing Museum in Goshen NY.