(Edited press release)
Ed Dodwell, owner of the Texas-based Diamond D Ranch training centers, and Dr. Katie Hayes, an equine veterinarian from Denison, Texas, will be honored by the Texas Thoroughbred Association at its annual conference and awards banquet Jan. 19-20 at the Doubletree Hotel in Austin.
For lifetime achievement, Dodwell will receive the T.I. "Pops" Harkins Award. Dodwell and his wife, Caroline, recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of their training center near Lone Oak, Texas.
A past president of the TTA, Dodwell is one of the leading consignors at the Fasig-Tipton Texas sales and is also active at the sales in Kentucky. In the long history of Diamond D, the training center has generated more than 100 individual stakes winners, including graded stakes winners and Texas-bred champions Jim’s Orbit and Darby’s Daughter. Dodwell, who was active in the effort to bring pari-mutuel racing to Texas and later to revise the simulcasting laws, recently passed the day-to-day operations of Diamond D on to his son, Scooter.
In 1989, the TTA Lifetime Achievement Award was re-named in honor of T.I. "Pops" Harkins, a 16-year veteran of the TTA board of directors. Each year, the Harkins Award is presented at the discretion of the TTA Awards Committee and board of directors to individuals whose contributions to the Texas Thoroughbred industry over a period of years have helped further the goals of the TTA.
Hayes will receive the Allen Bogan Memorial Award. Formerly the member of the year award, the name of this trophy was changed in 1997 to honor legendary Texas turf writer Allen Bogan, who passed away that year. The Bogan Award is presented to the TTA member whose efforts and contributions to the association and the Texas Thoroughbred industry during the preceding calendar year most helped further the goals of the TTA and racing in the state.
Hayes, who also breeds and campaigns Texas-breds, received the honor due to her efforts to bring video lottery terminals to Texas racetracks. Hayes provided two Texas Veterinary Medical Association committees and the TVMA board of directors with information regarding the benefits of VLTs to the Texas horse industry, as well as to equine practitioners. Due in large part to her work, the board passed a resolution in support of a public referendum on VLTs.
In addition to the awards for Dodwell and Hayes, the TTA will honor the Texas-bred champion horses of 2006, along with other award winners at the annual conference.
