NEWS
Bill Mooney wins second Eclipse Award
Posted: Thursday, December 27, 2007 5:52 PM
BILL MOONEY
Photo by Z
Bill Mooney, a longtime Thoroughbred Times contributing editor, has won the 2007 Media Eclipse Award for Writing in the news/commentary category for “Final Days for a Hall of Famer.”
The column was on the passing of Racing Hall of Fame member Precisionist, champion sprinter of 1985 who was euthanized at Old Friends in Kentucky due to cancerous tumors. The column appeared in the January 2007 issue of Post Time USA.
Mooney received a call on September 26 from Michael Blowen, founder and president of Old Friends, a Thoroughbred retirement facility devoted to racehorses and stallions, located in Scott County, Kentucky. Blowen told Mooney that 26-year-old Precisionist, who was suffering from a form of skin cancer, would have to be euthanized the following day.
Mooney went to Old Friends that evening and returned early the next morning and provided in his column an emotional narrative of Precisionist’s final hours, from the injections of lethal solutions, to Blowen holding Precisionist in his arms before the horse’s last breath, to the placement of a halter from the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) with Precisionist during his burial.
The 60-year-old Mooney, who resides in Lexington, won the 1985 Media Eclipse Award for magazine writing for an article about Ellis Park, which appeared in the Thoroughbred Record, the predecessor of Thoroughbred Times.
“I am stunned to win a second Eclipse Award,” Mooney said. “These Media Awards are so hard to win because the competition is so great and the quality of Turf writing and the talent of the reporters who cover the sport and this industry have never been better.”
Mooney said he plans to deliver his Eclipse Award after he receives it in January to the founder and president of Old Friends, Michael Blowen, and the Old Friends facility.
The panel of judges for the news/commentary category was comprised of Reid Cherner, USA Today; Jim Peden, former vice president of communications for the Jockey Club, and Steve Wulf of ESPN The Magazine.
Bob Ford received honorable mention in the news/commentary category for “Shed Row to the Winner’s Circle” about jockey Calvin Borel winning the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1). The column appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 7.
