NE Hall of Fame adds four

April 26, 2007

David McDuffee, Robert Temple and the late Octave Black and Dunbar Bostwick have been named to the New England Harness Writers Hall of Fame.

Temple, who is first vice president and secretary-treasurer of the New England Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), covered harness racing for the Boston Traveler and the Boston Herald Traveler in the 1960s and '70s, and worked in the publicity departments of Foxboro Raceway and Suffolk Downs.

He is a 30-year member of the New England chapter and for the past four years has been working on placing a marker at historic Readville Trotting Park in the Hyde Park section of Boston. He is also spearheading a drive to establish a permanent exhibit on the history of New England harness racing at the Sports Museum in Boston's TD Banknorth Garden.
Temble and his wife, Susan, are residents of Middleboro, Mass.

McDuffee is a native of Nashua, N.H., and is a longtime owner of Standardbreds whose horses have won two Little Brown Jugs, the Woodrow Wilson, four Breeders Crowns and the Governor's Cup.

McDuffee and his late lifetime friend, Tom Walsh, were partners of some of harness racing's most famous champions such as Magical Mike, Ambro Operative, Conway Hall, Miles McCool, Kadabra and many others.

Octave Blake (1895-1969) owned the Newport Stock Farm in Newport, Vt., where he bred many great performers such as Newport Dream, winner of the 1954 Hambletonian, and Forbes Chief, winner of the 1947 Little Brown Jug.

He was instrumental in convincing drivers to wear helmets as a standard practice and was also the first president of Vernon Downs in New York which opened July 1, 1953.

Blake was presented the Proximity Award by USHWA in 1954 and named an Honorary Member of USHWA in 1957.

Dunbar Bostwick (1897-2006), was a resident of Shelbourne, Vt., since 1932 and operated the Bostwick Farm known for Vermont-bred trotters. He accomplished many significant feats during his lifetime and bred and raced numerous winning Standardbreds like Boyne, Nibble Hanover, Chris Spencer, Kuno, Speedy Tomali and Super Speedy.

Mr. Bostwick was a founding director and former treasurer of the Saratoga Harness Racing Association and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Trotter in 1968. He was also a past director and treasurer of the U.S. Trotting Association and developed the magnetic snap barrier, a forerunner of the moving starting gate which is standard at all tracks today. (New England Harness Writers)

« Back