Beach Towel Easy Winner as Harness Horse of Year

Beach Towel, the first standardbred to win $2 million in a season, was overwhelmingly named horse of the year in voting by the U.S. Harness Writers Assn. and the North American Harness Racing Secretaries, as conducted by the U.S. Trotting Assn.

The 3-year-old pacer won 18 of 23 starts in 1990 and was named on 273 of 312 ballots. Miss Easy finished a distant second with 13 votes, followed by Dorunrun Bluegrass with eight and Artsplace with six.

Beach Towel won such major races as the Little Brown Jug, the Meadowlands Pace and the Breeders Crown and paced the fastest race mile of the year, 1:50, at Springfield, Ill. The colt’s earnings of $2,091,860 bettered the $1.85-million record set by Nihilator in 1985.

Beach Towel, trained and driven by Ray Remmen for Seth Rosenfield’s Uptown Stable of New York, has been retired to stud at Walnridge Farm in New Jersey.

Beach Towel also was named pacer of the year and 3-year-old colt pacer. Harmonious, winner of the Hambletonian, was named trotter of the year and 3-year-old trotter.

Other divisional champions: Artsplace, 2-year-old pacer; Miss Easy, 2-year-old filly pacer; Town Pro, 3-year-old filly pacer; Dorunrun Bluegrass, aged male pacer; Caesars Jackpot, aged female pacer; Crysta’s Best, 2-year-old colt trotter; Jean Bi, 2-year-old filly trotter; Me Maggie, 3-year-old filly trotter; No Sex Please, aged male trotter, and Peace Corps, aged female trotter.