Cindy Hutter, who continues her inspiring recovery from a severe brain injury sustained in a training accident in July 2022, has been named the 2023 winner of the Bill Mooney Award for displaying courage in the face of tremendous adversity by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.
Hutter started riding at a young age before going to work for trainer Bruce Miller after she turned 16. Hutter later worked for D. Wayne Lukas, galloping such stars as Winning Colors, Thunder
Gulch, Open Mind and Flanders, and later for Todd Pletcher, working with more greats such as More Than Ready, Jersey Girl and Graeme Hall.
Hutter and her husband, trainer George Weaver, launched their own stable in 2002. With Hutter serving as assistant and lead exercise rider, the couple campaigned Grade I winners Lighthouse Bay and Vekoma.
Hutter suffered injuries July 3, 2022, when a filly she was galloping on Saratoga's Oklahoma Training Track collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack. Unconscious for several weeks, Hutter continues to bounce back through rehabilitation and therapy all while making her presence felt at the barn even from a distance.
“We're very honored to win this award,” Weaver said. “Cindy was tough beforehand, and we ended up finding out how much tougher she was after everything happened. We're doing everything we can and she continues to improve. She's still got a strong work ethic. She might come out to the barn once a week, once every couple weeks. She came out the other day, spent the whole morning with us. And, of course, there was no shortage of comments to do this, and to do that.”
Hutter was on hand this summer when her husband saddled Crimson Advocate to victory in the G2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot, one of 10 stakes wins for the stable so far this year.
Hutter joins five prior Mooney winners–the award's namesake who died after a long battle with cancer in 2017: horseman Kiaran McLaughlin, retired jockey Joy Scott, retired jockey and owner Rene Douglas and horsewoman Martine Bellocq.
She will be honored along with the NTWAB's other four award winners at the organization's 63rd annual Awards Dinner at The Woolf Den by The Derby in Arcadia near Santa Anita Park, Nov. 1.
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