Bob Tucker to receive 2009 Pinnacle Award

The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame's Board of Trustees are pleased to announce the Museum’s 2009 Pinnacle Awardee is Robert A. Tucker of Stonegate Standardbred Farm.

Since 1996 the CTW Foundation Inc., of Wilmington, DE, led by foundation director and president Bob Tucker has provided significant financial support to The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame. In 2001 the Foundation assumed responsibility for funding the operating costs of the Museum’s free traveling exhibit, “The Story of Harness Racing by Currier & Ives,” and“What Is Harness Racing?” a free poster exhibit made available to fairs nationwide.To date the presentations have reached an audience of more than half a million people worldwide. On Hall of Fame Day, Sunday, July 5, 2009, Bob Tucker will receive the Museum’s Pinnacle Award from Museum President Elbridge T. Gerry, Jr., for his exemplary effort in promoting the Museum and supporting its mission to encourage interest in, and appreciation for, the history and culture of the sport of harness racing by making these free traveling exhibits possible.

Bob Tucker, the owner and operator of Stonegate Standardbred Farm in Glen Gardner, NJ, has been involved with the sport of harness racing for over four decades. He was born in Brooklyn in 1926 and was raised in Rockville Center, Long Island. His father owned Standardbred horses and by the age of four Tucker entered the horse world through horse shows and riding camps. In 1935 he moved to a farm in Morristown, NJ, with his family, where they owned horses, cows, pigs, chickens and canaries. It was during this time he formed his lifelong ambition: to own a farm of his own.

After serving in the Navy Air Corps during World War II, Tucker pursued his BA at Wesleyan University. In 1951 he graduated from Brown University with a MA in economics. He then began his career at Banker’s Trust Company on Wall Street and in 1954 joined Beneficial Corporation of Peapack, NJ. In 1977 he became a member of the office of the president.

In 1960 Bob Tucker decided to fulfill his childhood dream by purchasing a farm; five years later he purchased a 115-acre farm and named it Stonegate Farm. Over the years Tucker has attracted many prominent stallions to Stonegate; they include Cam Fella p,4,1:53.1 ($2,041,367), Dream Away p,3,1:50 ($1,342,071), Albert Albert p,3,1:52.1 ($1,237,070) and Pacific Fella p,5,1:48.2z ($1,064,631). He also developed a strong band of broodmares and a number of successful racing fillies and colts, including Landslide p,3,1:54.1 ($162,835), who ranked as one of the fastest pacers of the 1981 season and Headline Hanover p,4,1:54.1f ($524,357). Today the equine facility owns shares in eight stallions currently standing stud and owns more than fifty broodmares, including Summer Child p,2,1:54.2 ($493,609) and Western Azure p,4,1:51 ($484,444), in addition to a number of foals, yearlings and racing fillies and colts.

A deeply committed member of the sport of Harness Racing, Tucker served on the New Jersey Sire Stakes board during the mid 1980s and in 1985 was appointed head of the board by Governor Thomas Kean. He has acted on the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association board of directors and as a member of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture.

Bob Tucker and his wife Lauren reside at Stonegate Farm in Glen Gardner, NJ. They have six children, one of whom is a full-time New Jersey farmer. Bob and Lauren have ten grandchildren. (Harness Racing Museum)

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