CHOF inductee Judy Davis-Wilson is an originator and an original with a work ethic that’s unmatched
by Dave Briggs
When asked if she wanted to write a piece with her thoughts about her induction into the Communicators Hall of Fame (CHOF) tonight (July 6) in Goshen, NY, Judy Davis-Wilson politely declined.
“I still haven’t wrapped my head around this,” she said.
Truth is, Davis-Wilson, whose given first name is Zoe, is both an originator and an original — and one of the hardest-working people this sport has ever known.
“I always say I am a bit different than most in the CHOF because I was born into the industry,” she said. “My parents were stabled at Ocean Downs when I decided to arrive in the world. Mom missed her ‘Sunday’ dinner because she wanted her family doctor from her childhood to deliver and he was in Chesapeake City which back then had to be a good two-hour drive from Berlin. So, yeah, I was born on the backstretch.”
Davis-Wilson is deeply proud of her roots in the sport.
“If you go upstairs at the Harness Racing Museum and look at the boards on the women in racing you will see my mother,” Davis-Wilson said. “She drove at Freehold in 1947. She was a chemist with DuPont and the horses were a hobby.
“My dad came home from WWII [where he served in the South Pacific] and started driving horse vans for Thomas Transportation. He stepped into a private training and driving gig with his uncle, J.M. Davis and it lasted until ‘Uncle Med’ passed away. For 40 years, the entire stable was homebreds started with a couple of foundation mares purchased from Walnut Hall and the Village Farm of Langhorn, PA.”
Despite being born into, as Jerry Connors wrote, “one of the biggest and most successful harness racing families in the state of Delaware,” Davis-Wilson made her name on the frontside of racetracks, beginning at age 15 at Georgetown Raceway. It wasn’t long before she became the program director at a number of tracks — much-loved Brandywine prominent among them — and was instrumental in implementing the United States Trotting Association’s (USTA) computerized program system. That work was invaluable when Davis-Wilson began working at The Hambletonian Society, where she served for many years as its stakes manager.
When Delaware became one of the first jurisdictions to open racinos, Davis-Wilson was instrumental in reinvigorating the Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund (DSBF) when some of the slot machine revenue was directed toward purses. As Connors wrote, Davis-Wilson “can handle most any phase of the complex workings of a breeders and stakes program, and is frequently called upon to do so.”
She remained the director of the DSBF for well over two decades until her retirement in April of this year.
If all that wasn’t enough, Davis-Wilson has been a director of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) for 22 years. She is one of the very few to have held five different USHWA officer positions, including president and treasurer. She also has served the association with aplomb as the long-time head of Dan Patch Banquet ticket sales and as the gala’s chief seating organizer.
Not surprisingly, given her resume, work ethic and the fact she is extremely well liked by her peers, Davis-Wilson’s induction into the Communicators Hall of Fame is not her first honor. She received a President’s Award from the USTA in 2006 and was voted USHWA’s Member of the Year in 2013.
Yet, through it all, she has remained true to her beloved Delaware roots in harness racing and instrumental in sustaining the sport in the state for years to come.
