2025 Standardbred Communicator Inductee
Dave Briggs has devoted more than 30 years to horse racing journalism, earning a well-deserved reputation for integrity, professionalism, and unwavering support of the sport.
The Windsor, Ontario native studied communications at the University of Windsor and later earned a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario. Ironically, despite his early ambitions to become a sportswriter, harness racing was unfamiliar territory for Briggs during his university years.
He grew up just five minutes from Windsor Raceway and had friends whose parents had horses and a handful of times he went to the races with them.
Briggs’ introduction to harness racing came when he was doing his graduate work at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. One of his journalism assignments was “go to the raceway (The Raceway at Western Fair District) and find a story.”
When he graduated from Western, he worked at the sports department of the Windsor Free Press for a year and a half and then his contract came to an end. As fate would have it, one of his former professors suggested he approach the Canadian Sportsman.
Briggs spent 19 years at The Sportsman – Canada’s longest-running publication at the time, until it closed in 2013.
Briggs is not only an insightful and seasoned writer but also a natural storyteller. He chronicled the remarkable journey of Somebeachsomewhere – the Ontario-bred pacer purchased for $40,000 at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale by unheralded trainer, Brent MacGrath, and five fellow Maritimers. Defying conventional wisdom, they brought the colt back to Nova Scotia to train through the heart of winter, setting the stage for a rise to superstardom.
“I always enjoyed his interviews,” MacGrath said. “He’s just a terrific, upfront guy. When he gets a story that needs some digging, he does that. He’s a great student of the game. There couldn’t be a more worthy Hall of Fame inductee.”
From 2014 through 2018, Briggs served as co-editor of Canadian Thoroughbred. He was a features writer for Hoof Beats magazine, a columnist for Horseman & Fair World. He also had a regular harness racing column in the Guelph Mercury from 2005 to 2016.
From 2022 through 2024, he was a managing editor and writer for Catena Media, covering the North American gambling industry with an emphasis on online and retail casinos, sports betting and horse racing.
Throughout his career, Dave’s writing has been recognized with 30 national and international journalism awards, including five American Horse Publication Awards, four Standardbred Canada Media Excellence awards and a record 12 John Hervey Awards from the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA). He also has two World Trotting Conference Media Awards, an Ontario Equestrian Publication Award, a Dan Patch Media Award and two Sovereign Media Awards in his portfolio.
He has also participated on the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame’s Nominating and Election Committees for several years.
In 2017, he was inducted into the United States’ Harness Racing Hall of Fame Communicators Corner, and in 2023 he was honoured with the Tom White Media Award by the Little Brown Jug and the Delaware County Fair.
Considered one of harness racing’s most respected and honoured writers, Briggs, who resides in Port Stanley, Ontario, now serves as communications and content specialist for Ontario Racing and is the editor of the online publication, Harness Racing Update, after successfully spearheading its relaunch in 2015.