MTHA Honors To Light Up Christmas Party
It will be a special night, Dec. 7, when the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association honors its best at the annual Awards Ceremony and Christmas Party at the Laurel Park Carriage Room.
The MTHA continues its 27-year tradition of honoring owner, trainer and backstretch workers-of-the-year and has added to the excitement with a lifetime achievement award and two special awards, one for unsung hero and the other for outstanding service to backstretch employees.
History will be made when Maryland Jockey Club owner Frank Stronach is celebrated as Owner of the Year. He will be the first track owner to receive the award; Graham Motion is Trainer of the Year; and trainer King Leatherbury is the lifetime achievement honoree.
The Backstretch Workers of the Year awards go to men and women for their exemplary service to the industry behind the scenes. This year, Rigoberto “Rigo” Salazar is the Pimlico Race Course award winner and Eveline Kjelstrup receives the award for her work at Laurel Park.
The special unsung hero award goes to Joe Miller, who works for the MJC, driving the horse ambulance; and the Maryland Horsemen’s Assistance Fund honors Richard Meyer with an award for outstanding service to backstretch employees. Meyer, who recently retired, served for 26 years as the chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee.
Stronach has earned the owner award because of his support of Maryland racing on the track by sending 38 percent of his total entries to Maryland racetracks and for investing nearly $20 million toward track improvements at Laurel Park and Pimlico in 2015.
Stronach’s philosophy is centered on reinvesting in his businesses and his goal is to make horse racing at the tracks owned by The Stronach Group self-sustaining.
“I don’t see anyone else around the country trying to do what he’s doing,” Trainer of the Year Motion says. “We’re all lucky he’s involved.”
Motion’s clients are lucky he’s involved too. Over the years, the native of England, who trains at Fair Hill, has turned his stable into a national and international success story.
In 2015, without having the “big horse,” Motion still managed to keep his stable in the top 10 nationally. He has produced 32 stakes winners and seen his horses finish among the top three 44 percent of the time.
Those numbers, along with his second-best purse-winning season (more than $7.4 million), demonstrates his continued excellence and has earned him Trainer of the Year.
King Leatherbury is no stranger to awards but this year has been a particularly fulfilling one for the storied Maryland trainer.
Last summer he was voted into the National Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in Saratoga, N.Y., an honor that showed recognition by the entire industry for his achievements. At his induction Leatherbury was the fourth winningest trainer in history and one of just four trainers ever to win more than 6,000 races.
Now he receives the MTHA lifetime achievement award. Leatherbury said the local award carries great weight “because it is from the horsemen in Maryland. It is from the people I’ve worked with every day. It is a special, wonderful honor.”
Humble by nature, Leatherbury says this award comes to him because of the success of his wonderful home-bred Ben’s Cat and because he has gotten to be 82 years old.
“You get old, these kinds of things come,” he says. “You’re not going to get a lifetime achievement award when you’re young.”
The backstretch employee winners provided much service behind the scenes this year. At Pimlico, barn assistant Salazar has earned Backstretch Worker of the Year for making sure trainer Kieron Magee has nothing to worry about when he leaves Salazar in charge of the men, horses and barn.
Magee and his wife, Kelly, say of Salazar, “We love him . . . He’s trustworthy, dependable and has become part of our family.”
And at Laurel Park trainer Rodney Jenkins says Kjelstrup, his assistant trainer, deserves Backstretch Worker of the Year because she’s “pretty perfect. I don’t know any shortcomings she has – and I’d trust her with my life.”
Besides being a terrific horsewoman, Kjelstrup also helps a lot of people off the racetrack. She takes backstretch workers to doctors when asked and helps them fill out necessary forms. She also trains agility dogs for competition and for visits to hospitals, nursing homes and schools.
Joe Miller has a job that would wear out many horsemen. He drives the horse ambulance at Laurel Park and Pimlico. He’s done it for 18 years and has seen a lot of bad things.
“What do you say about a man who has his job?” MJC racing secretary Georganne Hale says. “It takes a certain type of person. The horses he sees are hurt or dead. Not everyone can do it and no one is standing in line for his job.”
Miller, who cut back on his duties this fall, receives the Unsung Hero award for his long service to the racing community in a necessary but emotionally draining job.
“I try to remind them [the owners and trainers] that their horses are doing what they’re bred to do,” he says. “I tell them if I’m taking care of their horses they should be proud because it means they were giving everything they had.”
Richard Meyer was tireless in his service to backstretch workers and it is because of that he receives the MTHA’s Outstanding Service to Backstretch Employees award.
It was through his efforts that the Backstretch Pension Plan for Maryland horsemen was developed. It was his energy that inspired a backstretch health clinic and he was the one who organized annual health fairs and arranged to have the track kitchens stay open on Christmas and Easter mornings to provide holiday meals for those who have to work.
The event begins at 6 p.m. Besides honoring the best in the horseracing community, it also does double-duty as a toy drive for Backstretch workers children. For information and to purchase tickets go to MDHORSEMEN.com
