Stevens and Dickie win at Entain Industry Excellence Awards 

Harness racing has had two winners at the first ever Entain Industry Excellence awards in Auckland tonight.

Open to anyone under 40 and recognising emerging leaders and high performers in all three racing codes, the awards attracted over 100 entries with 29 making the finals in nine different award categories. Cambridge Stud Bloodstock Manager Cameron Ring took out the supreme Entain Excellence Award.

Five entries with harness racing links were selected to be finalists with the two winners being Jo Stevens in the Administrative and Ancillary Services category (pictured above with Ken Breckon), while Chanelle Dickie won the Care and Welfare Award. The other three finalists were Southland trainer-driver Nathan Williamson (Equine Handling), Alabar Weanling and Yearling Manager Jamie Bartlett (Dedication to Breeding), and two-time champion junior driver Sarah O'Reilly (Dedication to Racing)

Administrative and Ancillary Services Award: Jo Stevens

Jo Stevens is the wearer of many hats : social media content creator, re-homer, promoter, organiser, trainer and mother (and a few more besides).

A trainer of a small Hamilton-based team, Stevens has trained 25 winners (as of July 2024) including Group 3 success with Rosie at the 2023 Northern Trotting Breeders Stakes at Cambridge. With fiancé Dylan Ferguson in the bike the victory was made all the more special.

A very popular and well-known figure in Waikato and Auckland racing circles, she runs a very successful Facebook page, Track Chat. It gets up to 30,000 views a week with her "best of the week" segment and pre and post race interviews being particularly popular. It's a way of bringing racing to the people, and they love it. That work dovetails nicely into her other roles as racing promotions officer for both Cambridge Raceway and Alexandra Park.

Away from the track she is heavily involved in re-homing retired racehorses and estimates she has re-homed "a few hundred" over the years. A former jockey, she is the driving force behind the annual "Battle of the Breeds" competition at Cambridge which showcases both standardbreds and thoroughbreds in their Life After Racing with a series of competitions.

This year she also organised the first ever Dorothy Cutts Challenge, a trans-Tasman drivers challenge at Cambridge that celebrated the first ever totalisator race win by a female driver in 1979. The star-studded line-up included New Zealand Cup winning drivers Kerryn Manning and Natalie Rasmussen.

With a pre-schooler Gracie to look after as well, Stevens juggles a lot of tasks, and brings a fresh take to many of the projects she undertakes. Much of what she does is behind the scenes and goes unrecognised. She is a genuine hard-working all-rounder who is committed to promoting all that is good about racing.

Care and Welfare Award : Chanelle Dickie (joint winner)

Known universally as the "pink lady" Chanelle Dickie is well known in harness racing and equestrian circles.

She has re-educated and re-homed dozens of standardbreds, and is currently part of Harness Racing New Zealand's HERO programme. (HERO stands for Harness Education & Rehoming Opportunities).

Among the horses she's re-homed is Bronze Jay who was the winner of the ridden standardbred title at the 2016 Horse of the Year in Hastings. She raced Chanelle Bromac, who won seven races on either side of the Tasman in the 2010s including the Australian Breeders Crown. She then re-educated the horse and together they have since won many Champion and Reserve ribbons at provincial and national level.

She's also been successful in barrel racing on the rodeo circuit. She wears her trademark pink outfits at most events, and with her outgoing bubbly personality she's hard to miss.

At 37, she runs her own equestrian facility which offers horse grazing, full agistment and arena hire at Selwyn, just outside Christchurch. It has a 70 x 30m indoor arena and outdoor dressage and show jumping arenas. Dickie regularly holds competitions there and is a tireless champion of the standardbred either on the racetrack and in their Life After Racing.

HRNZ would like to congratulate Jo and Chanelle for their wins, and for Nathan, Jamie and Sarah for making the finals.

To see the official media release on the Entain Industry Awards click here