For video of Dr. Rudolph Alvarado's acceptance of the award, click here.

For video of Dr. Rudolph Alvarado's discussion of his book before the awards presentation, click here.

For video of author Vic Zast's comments, click here.

For video of Peter Williams's comments on behalf of authors Dick and Felix Francis, click here.

Dr. Rudolph Alvarado, author of The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita, was awarded first prize in the third annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, presented by Lexington’s Castleton Lyons farm and THOROUGHBRED TIMES, during a reception on Sunday evening, April 5, at Castleton Lyons in Lexington.

Renamed this year for the late founder of Castleton Lyons who created the prize in 2006 to reward literary excellence, the award is presented annually for the best book published about an aspect of Thoroughbred racing. Alvarado received a $10,000 prize and a trophy made of custom-designed Irish crystal.

“When you start a project, you never know where it will take you,” said Alvarado, a university professor and author based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, who spent five years researching the legendary announcer who called more than 15,000 consecutive races at Santa Anita Park outside Los Angeles. “What I learned from this is to stick to it and never give up.”

Alvarado had first come across Hernandez’s name while reading Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit: An American Legend, and he was taken aback by the prominence of a Mexican-American at a time when Latinos in the U.S. faced tremendous discrimination. Alvarado was not a racing fan at the time but rather a scholar of Mexican-American history and immigration, and the author of several books.

His curiosity was piqued by how Hernandez was able to navigate the Anglo world so successfully. Alvarado amassed a collection of newspaper articles about the late race caller and his research included face-to-face meetings with Father Frank Hernandez, a Catholic priest and Joe Hernandez’s son.

“The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez pulled me in like a vacuum,” said T. D. Thornton, one of contest’s judges and winner of the 2007 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for his Not by a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track. “It’s not just a fine piece of racing literature, but an exhaustively researched historical document that details the origins of West Coast racing, the art of race calling, and one man’s struggle to break through racial barriers at a time when the odds were stacked mightily against minorities.”

The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita, published by Caballo Press of Ann Arbor, beat out 14 other books for the 2008 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award.

The other finalists for the 2008 award were The History and Art of 25 Travers, by Vic Zast and featuring the art and posters of Greg Montgomery (Publisher: North Country Books Inc.) and Silks, by Dick Francis and Felix Francis (Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons). Each of the finalists received a check for $1,000 and a trophy.

The winner was selected by a panel of three judges: Audrey R. Korotkin, Bill Mooney, and T. D. Thornton.

The inaugural Book Award winner for 2006 was Joe Drape for Black Maestro, on the life of Jimmy Winkfield. Thornton’s Not by a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track won the 2007 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award.

For more information, contact Thoroughbred Times Managing Editor Tom Law, (859) 260-9800 or tlaw@thoroughbredimes.com.

For video of Mark Simon's opening comments, click here.

For video of Audrey Korotkin's opening comments, click here.

For video of Shane Ryan's opening comments, click here.

For video of judge Bill Mooney's comments, click here.