An Apology to Harry Harvey

May 13th 2008

 3 comments
Having a blog means always getting to say "sorry" which I am about to do. In January, when I was fortunate enough to receive a John Hervey Award at the USHWA ceremony at Dover Downs, I had the pleasure to meet the legendary Harry Harvey. Later, when I got the chance to make my speech, I failed to recognize his attendance at the function and that failure has bothered me ever since.
 
It has been 55 years-- two generations!-- since Harvey won the 1953 Hambletonian (you can watch it here) with Helicopter. He is a living legend and his presence in our sport graces us still. He's still training, for example, and I believe actually drove a race last year (correct me if I am wrong). I hope his daughter, Ellen, will pass along my good wishes to her father and accept my apologies for not singling him out in front of hundreds of well-wishers. I even had a joke lined up-- I was going to inform the audience that it's a little known fact that John Manzi used to babysit for Harry Harvey back in the day. 

Comments

John Zueno said...

Never mentioned, Harry also broke, made, trained and drove Albatross as a 2-year-old before going to Stanley Dancer.

posted at 3:40 PM on May 13th 2008

Paul Siegel said...

Just to clarify what I said, he didn't make any purse starts last year, but is listed as having made a few qualifying/matinee starts. Over the previous 5 or 6 years he had made a purse or two every year.

posted at 1:44 PM on May 13th 2008

Paul Siegel said...

Harry Harvey is one of the great gentlemen of harness racing.

I don't know if you are aware that he was seriously ill with an infection earlier this year...hospitalized for several weeks and subsequently in a rehabilitaion facility. Hopefully he is makinga good recovery.

By the way, he did not make any purse driving starts last year, according to the USTA.

From Andrew: Glad to hear he is doing better. I knew that he had been sick. Also, I believe he qualified that nice Lislea Phia horse either last year or the year before that.

posted at 1:04 PM on May 13th 2008

Post A Comment

Name:
Email:
  Due to spam bots, your email will not be displayed.
Website:
Remember Me:    
Comment: