NEWS
Three Book Award finalists named
Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 3:11 PM
by Audrey R. Korotkin
Three books from more than two dozen submitted have been chosen as finalists for this year’s Castleton Lyons-Thoroughbred Times Book Award, which will be given to the best book published in 2007 about some aspect of the Thoroughbred industry.
The three finalist authors are Bill Nack, Rachel Pagones, and T. D. Thornton.
The winner of this year’s award will be announced during an invitation-only reception on April 7 at Castleton Lyons Farm in Lexington. The winning author will receive a trophy and a check for $10,000.
Entries for the Book Award came from as far away as Australia and England and as close as Lexington. There were biographies and autobiographies, simple children’s books and elaborate collections of equine photography. Some came from well-known and prolific authors, others were written by individuals who happened to be racing fans and had an affinity for a particular horse, trainer, or racetrack.
The finalists, in alphabetical order, are:
William Nack, Ruffian: A Racetrack Romance (ESPN Books)
Bill Nack has spent more than four decades in journalism, in an eclectic career that included positions at Long Island’s Newsday and at Sports Illustrated, from which he retired as a senior writer in 2001 after nearly 23 years. At Sports Illustrated, Nack won six Media Eclipse Awards for his coverage of Thoroughbred racing. He earned a seventh for a story he wrote for GQ. An anthology of his magazine work was published under the title "My Turf: Boxers, Blood Money and the Sporting Life." He also authored Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, which Sports Illustrated listed as one of the 50 finest sports books of all time.
Rachel Pagones, Dubai Millennium: A Vision Realised, A Dream Lost (Highdown/Racing Post)
Rachel Pagones is a native of Washington, D.C., who has been involved with Thoroughbred racing and breeding for 20 years. Her writing credentials are broad as she has written about racing and bloodstock issues for numerous publications, including Financial Times and Thoroughbred Times.
In her current position of bloodstock editor of Racing Post, Pagones had a unique opportunity to observe Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum (founder of the Post), with his favorite horse. The affection extended to the next generation as Sheikh Mohammed attempted to purchase every single one of the foals from Dubai Millennium’s single crop, which was abbreviated by his sudden death.
T.D. Thornton, Not By A Longshot: A Season At A Hard-Luck Horse Track (PublicAffairs)
T.D. Thornton grew up in Salem, New Hampshire, in the shadow of Rockingham Park; thus he writes that his path to the track “was a product of both nature and nurture. My dad liked to gamble and dabbled in training horses, and my family happened to live in a racetrack town.” At age 23, Thornton became the youngest staffer at the Racing Times, a short-lived competitor to the Daily Racing Form. Shortly after the demise of Racing Times in early 1992, he was hired by Suffolk Downs as on-air handicapping commentator for its new simulcasting program; after six years, he was promoted to media relations director, a position he held until December 2000. It was from that vantage point, during his final season at the track, that he wrote Not By A Longshot.
Audrey R. Korotkin is a Thoroughbred Times contributing writer
