New Hyde Park resident Chris Wittstruck will be honored by the U.S. Harness Writers Association at its 54th annual awards banquet on Sunday night with the Phil Pines Award for his writing about the industry.
An attorney and a horse racing journalist, Wittstruck will be fourth recipient of the award named after Pines, who was a renowned artist, historian and award-winning writer and broadcaster in the business.
“To be named in the same breath with him is a tremendous honor. This is really special since Phil Pines was a legend in the industry,” Wittstruck said. “It’s really because of my advocacy in the media.”
Wittstruck was a 2005 and 2006 winner of the John Hervey Award for two stories in “Hoof Beats” magazine. His piece, “What’s a Rebate?…and Why We All Need to Care” was judged to be the best magazine article of 2005 in North America concerning harness racing. His piece on racehorse adoption was judged the best piece of 2006.
In 2012, Wittstruck was a recipient of a United States Trotting Association’s President’s Award for his “… great ability to take complex issues and present them in a manner we can all understand.”
From an early age growing up in Brooklyn several subway stops away from Aqueduct Raceway, Wittstruck said, he was awestruck by horse racing.
“It’s just a thrill for me, the entire sport,” he said. “From the time I was 14, it’s aIl I wanted to do in life.”
Wittstruck said 80 percent of his law practice revolves around horse racing. He currently represents three of the six harness horsemen’s associations in New York State with another attorney in Queens. He also represents individual horse owners in disputes with New York State Racing and Wagering and deals contract disputes between horsemen and trainers.
He received his bachelor of arts degree, summa cum laude, and his juris doctorate degree from St. John’s University.
“I’m a commercial litigator. I’m an attorney who works in the industry and I write extensively,” he said.
As a regular presenter at the Albany Law School Racing and Gaming Program’s Saratoga Institute, Wittstruck has lectured on legal issues involving racehorse ownership at Hofstra University and Rutgers University, as well as for The Suffolk County Bar Association. He also is a contributor of treatises on critical legal issues regarding the racing industry.
He owns fractional shares in several racehorses himself.
“The horses are beautiful and being involved in the industry allows me to watch them,” Wittstruck said. “It’s in my blood. It’s never going away.”
Wittstruck has been interviewed about racehorse ownership on the NBC and CBS news affiliates, as well as on Business Week Weekend T.V., CNBC and CNNfn. Articles about Wittstruck’s ownership interests and ownership educational efforts have appeared in “The Blood-Horse,” “The Thoroughbred Times,” “TIMES: in Harness,” “Newsday,” “The Canadian Sportsman” and “The Saratogian.”
As often as not, he said his law office is on the backstretch at Belmont or in a paddock in Yonkers. Aside from the horses, he said the sport is full of interesting personalities.
Wittstruck has lived in New Hyde Park since 1988 and was a member of the Dads Club at New Hyde Park Memorial High School while his daughter, Angelica, was attending schools in the area. She graduated from New Hyde Park Memorial in 2008 and is currently working toward a graduate degree in forensic mental health counseling at John Jay College.
“It was a group that I thought was very important. When you have a down economy, it was nice to be able to give some money to do things,” Wittstruck said.
The New Hyde Park Dads Club raises money for sports teams and other high schools programs and also provides scholarship money to New Hyde Park Memorial graduates.
