The FHBPA held its Nominating Meeting for its 2018 Board of Directors election at Adena Grill at Gulfstream Park last Sunday. Thirteen nominees have been confirmed by the FHBPA Nominating Committee for five available positions.
The nominees, who must still sign an affidavit confirming their intent to run, are incumbent owners Adam Lazarus and Stephen Screnci along with newcomers Bob Edwards and Troy Levy. Incumbent trainers Joe Orseno and Barry Rose were nominated along with fellow trainers, Juan Arias, Patrick Biancone, David Kassen, Larry Pilotti, Teresa Pompay, Antonio Sano and Carlo Vaccarezza.
Two owners and two trainers will be elected along with one at large position – either an owner or trainer. Ballots will go out in February and will be counted in mid-March. The procedure will be the same as last year with voters being offered their choice of either paper ballot voting or online voting. The election process, including mailing, collecting and counting of ballots, will again be handled by Simply Voting, an independent, outside company.
Annual awards were also presented at the Meeting dinner.
The Kent Stirling Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to trainer Milt Wolfson who recently celebrated his 85th birthday and is still actively engaged in the business after nearly 60 years, having been a farm manager, tack shop owner and trainer. Retired trainer Bill Kaplan presented the award to Milt, who was joined by his family at the dinner.
The FHBPA Person of the Year Award was presented to His Place Ministries and its four chaplains, Tom LaPointe and Alberto Grimaldi at Gulfstream, Guillermo Fernandez at GPW and Fernando Roman at Palm Meadows. The chaplains were recognized for their tireless work, day in and day out, at our three facilities helping to tend to the needs of those who work on our backstretches. This year the chaplains were especially engaged in preparation for Hurricane Irma and its aftermath.