2023 Lady Pace Honoree is Kathy Parker

Kathy Parker, Harness Racing Hall of Fame Communicator and longtime editor of The Horseman and Fair World magazine, will be saluted as the 2023 Lady Pace honoree by the Delaware County Fair.

Parker was born into a harness racing family and grew up in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in journalism and began working for The Horseman and Fair World magazine, the industry’s leading periodical, in 1980. She was named the publication’s editor and general manager in 1995 and served in those positions until the magazine’s closure in February 2021.

She won a John Hervey Award for excellence in harness racing journalism in 1992.

In the spring of 2021, Parker was named the editor of Hoof Beats magazine, the official publication of the United States Trotting Association. She retired from Hoof Beats earlier this year and lives in Lexington, KY with her husband, Dan Coon, one of the industry’s top track construction and maintenance experts.

Parker will be honored in a winner’s circle ceremony on Jug Day (Thursday, Sept. 21).

by Jay Wolf, for the Little Brown Jug