Lexington, Kentucky (January 8, 2026) ─ The Nationwide Thoroughbred Racing Affiliation, Day by day Racing Type, and Nationwide Turf Writers and Broadcasters right now introduced the winners in six 2025 Media Eclipse Awards. All entries should be first revealed or broadcast primarily between November 16, 2024 and November 14, 2025.
The 2025 Media Eclipse Award winners are:
stay television present – FOX Sports activities, “Belmont Stakes,” Michael Mulvihill, President of Insights and Analytics, June 7, 2025
featured television – FOX Sports activities, “The Therapeutic Trip,” Michael Mulvihill, President, Insights & Analytics, June 7, 2025
Writing – Information/Company – Natalie Voss, Paulick Report – “Scrolls of Destroy: Thoroughbreds, Bail Pens, and Horse Merchants,” December 2024
Writing – Particular Function/Commentary – Jay Privman, DRF.com and Day by day Racing Type, “Lucas goes from Caustic to Avancular,” June 29, 2025
{photograph} – Skip Dickstein, “Unsawted,” Albany Occasions Union and Blocks, August 31
multimedia – Augusta Chapman and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics Radio “The Horse is Us: Contained in the Horse-Industrial Complicated”, October 31, 2025
The fifty fifth Media Eclipse Award Winners will obtain a trophy.th The annual Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards Ceremony and Dinner can be held on Thursday, January twenty second at Breakers Palm Seashore in Florida.
Reside TV Reveals – FOX Sports activities
FOX Sports activities gained the primary Reside Tv Program Eclipse Award with 157 stay broadcasts.th Belmont Stakes Introduced by NYRA Betts Runs Broadcast from Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York on June 7, 2025
The 2025 Belmont Stakes featured a long-awaited rematch between Kentucky Derby Introduced Bywood Ford Reserve winner Sovereignty and Preakness Stakes winner Journalism. Sovereignty beat Journalism within the Derby, however his connections helped him keep away from the Preakness and arrange a much-anticipated showdown between the 2 stallions on the Belmont, with Sovereignty within the ascendancy. FOX carried 5 hours of stay protection of the Belmont Stakes on its major community.
FOX deployed 40 cameras for the protection. Twelve of them have been SSMo, eight RF, and 4 cameras working on a non-public 5G community offered by CP Communications. FOX additionally employed a drone and helicopter, in addition to two jitacam point-to-point digicam techniques.
Invoice Richards and Pete Macheska produced the published, with Brian Lilly serving as director. Curt Menefee is your host, joined by analysts Tom Amoss and Richard Migliore. Jonathan Kinchen and Chris Fallica have been wagering analysts. Carissa Thompson, Paddock Host. Tom Rinaldi, options reporter. Maggie Wolfendale, reporter. Commentator Terry Bradshaw and race caller Frank Miramadi.
Michael Mulvihill, President of Insights and Analytics at FOX Sports activities. “We have been lucky to host a really particular Belmont Stakes winner in Sovereignty and to have entry to among the finest environments on the earth at Saratoga. Our employees, led by producer Invoice Richards and director Brian Lilly, delivered the published the occasion deserved. A fantastic day on the races is poetry, a puzzle and a celebration, and we hope that is what we delivered to our hundreds of thousands of followers on Belmont Day.”
Honorable point out within the Reside Tv Program class went to NBC Sports activities for the 2025 Kentucky Derby. Lindsay Schanzer, Senior Coordinator Producer;
The choose within the stay tv class was ESPN horse racing producer Kristin Coogler. Dick Gerardi, a former columnist for the Philadelphia Day by day Information, and Jacques Renaud, a producer for 30 years at CBS Information, commonly report on Thoroughbred points and options.
TV Particular – FOX Sports activities
FOX Sports activities gained the Tv Function Eclipse Award for “The Therapeutic Trip,” which aired on June 7, 2025. That is FOX’s second TV Function Eclipse Award, having beforehand gained the award in 2019 for its protection of champion filly Rachel Alexandra.
The Therapeutic Trip, narrated by Tom Rinaldi, explores the Mott racing household and the devastating lack of Margot Mott, daughter of coach Riley Mott and his spouse Megan and granddaughter of Corridor of Fame coach Invoice Mott. Margot misplaced her battle with a sort of mind tumor in 2024 on the age of two.
This characteristic begins with a particular bond between father and son that developed right into a ardour for sports activities when Riley began attending Invoice’s barn at about 5 years previous. The bond grew as Riley joined Invoice’s outstanding success in changing into a Corridor of Fame coach.
By 2023, Riley and Megan have been blessed with their first youngster, daughter Margot. That fall, Margot was identified with a big tumor at the back of her head and needed to endure surgical procedure inside 12 hours. Her life was by no means the identical. Three months after her analysis, she handed away in her mom’s arms.
“My household and my two sons saved my life, however I feel horses have been essentially the most therapeutic factor obtainable to me on the time,” Riley Mott mentioned as she handled the loss. And, as Renaldi mentioned in unison, “Coaching and racing introduced the Mott household collectively.”
And so they have been collectively when Sovereignty gained the Kentucky Derby final Could. “That was essentially the most particular second I had with my dad,” Riley mentioned.
The characteristic captures Invoice and Riley sharing a heat embrace close to the infield winner’s circle at Churchill Downs after their Derby win, and concludes with a photograph of Margot on the horse and in entrance of the horse’s stall.
“Storytelling is on the core of what we do at Fox Sports activities,” mentioned FOX Sports activities’ Michael Mulvihill. “We’re deeply grateful to the Mott household for trusting Tom Rinaldi and producer Etienne Materre to inform their story. We humbly share this honor with your entire Mott household.”
You’ll be able to view the award-winning works right here.
Honorable point out within the TV characteristic class went to NBC Sports activities for a particular that includes Steve Kornacki spending time with Corridor of Fame coach D. Wayne Lucas, which aired on Could 3, 2025 and was produced by Elinor Wright. The Kentucky Derby episode of Netflix’s “Race for the Crown” additionally obtained an honorable point out. Ian Sambar, producer.
The choose within the tv particular class was trade communications guide Bob Curran. Dave Johnson, monitor announcer, tv analyst, race caller for ABC Sports activities, and present co-host of SiriusXM’s Down the Stretch. Multimedia Eclipse Award winner and three-time Emmy Award winner Patti Wolff of ABC Sports activities;
Writing – Information/Company – Natalie Voss
Natalie Voss offered an in-depth evaluation of the strategies, reactions, and results of bail bonds in her four-part sequence, “Scrolls of Destroy: Thoroughbreds, Bail Bonds, and Horse Merchants,” revealed in The Paulic Report in December 2024. Bail bonding is a brand new and rising financial system during which horses, together with many Thoroughbreds, are offered to the general public underneath menace of being exported and offered for meat if the bail is simply too excessive. Value’ just isn’t paid.
That is the fourth Media Eclipse Award for Voss, of Georgetown, Kentucky.
“This subject is essential to me, so I am very honored to win the Eclipse Award for this sequence,” mentioned Voss. “I’ve performed plenty of reporting associated to the bail financial system over my profession, and I’ve all the time been a bit shocked once I come throughout horse racing individuals who do not know a lot about bail bonds. I additionally acknowledged that there aren’t many impartial references on bail bonds, so I got down to create a sequence that would demystify its complexities and supply micro- and macro-level options and views for these seeking to navigate this subject.”
Voss, who’s at present director of communications for the US Equestrian Federation, gained the Media Eclipse Award within the Information/Enterprise class in 2016 and the Media Eclipse Award within the Information/Enterprise class and Options/Clarification class in 2020. All written for Paulic Report. She labored at The Paulic Report for 12 years and was editor-in-chief when she left in 2025.
You’ll be able to view the award-winning works right here.
Honorable mentions within the Information/Enterprise class went to Joe Clancy, who gained the Media Eclipse Award thrice, for his “Journalism writes masterpiece in Preakness thriller,” revealed within the July 1 challenge of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbreds, and “Summer season Studying,” a information article concerning the 2025 Travers S, revealed within the August 27 Saratoga Particular.
The choose within the Information/Enterprise class was Dan Liebman, former editor of Bloodhorse and State Journal in Frankfort, Kentucky. Jim Mulvihill, director of selling communications for Denver-based Kroenke Sports activities & Leisure, former editor and NTRA communications director. Bloomberg Information Editor-in-Chief David Papadopoulos.
Writing – Function/Commentary – Jay Pribman
Jay Pribman gained the Function/Explanatory Media Eclipse Award for “Lucas Goes from Caustic to Avancular,” a memoir of the late Corridor of Fame coach D. Wayne Lucas’ dynamic profession and private evolution over 4 many years as a significant drive in Thoroughbred racing. This text first appeared on the Day by day Racing Type web site DRF.com on June 29, the day after Lucas’ dying.
That is the primary Media Eclipse Award for Mr. Pribman of Carlsbad, California. Pribman, who will retire in 2022 after masking the game since 1980, obtained the Particular Eclipse Award for Profession Excellence in 2023.
“Wayne Lucas was a massively influential determine on the earth of sports activities, however his story is essentially unknown to those that weren’t there when he first appeared,” Pribman mentioned. “Having lined him for greater than 40 years, I used to be lucky to have that arc perspective, and I used to be lucky that my previous employer, the Day by day Racing Type, wished to run an article that introduced the total story of Wayne.
“I wish to thank Day by day Racing Type Editor Jody Swaby and Editor-in-Chief Irwin Cohen for offering house for the essay, and particularly Santa Anita and Saratoga monitor announcer Frank Miramadi. Most of all, I need to thank Mr. Wayne for suggesting this text and urging me to do it. For his distinctive story and for exhibiting us that people are advanced and may evolve, and that we do not have to caricature our greatest or worst moments.”
Pribman first lined Lucas for the Los Angeles Day by day Information throughout the 1980 Santa Anita Derby, and final wrote about Lucas in an interview earlier than the 2022 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course when he was a nationwide correspondent for the Day by day Racing Type.
In “From Caustic to Avancular,” Pribman describes Lucas’ transition from the Quarter Horse scene of the late Nineteen Seventies to thoroughbred racing just like the Hurricane. He was daring and brash, making his fellow trainers uncomfortable as he rapidly climbed the ladder of success in his finely tailor-made fits and immaculate stables scattered throughout the nation. He garnered media consideration whereas racking up wins in Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cups. Over time, Lucas endured adjustments in his fortunes, tailored to the occasions, continued to win, and established a thriving legacy amongst his colleagues and followers as a preferred and beloved “coach.”
“His teaching tree has already produced excellent disciples and can be round for many years to return.” Pribman wrote. “His exacting requirements for the look of a barn and the conduct of those that work there are carried ahead by these trainers, and lots of others, similar to Kenny McPeek, who’ve lengthy admired Lucas, even when they didn’t work for him. Lucas left a big mark on the gross sales ring when it comes to what is predicted of a jockey and the worth paid for a horse.”
Alongside the best way, Lucas modified. Fashionable racehorse coaching strategies, society’s calls for, and the best way they work together with people have all advanced with the occasions. He appeared glad, grateful, and most of all, glad. ”
You’ll be able to learn the award-winning article right here.
Honorable point out within the characteristic/commentary class went to Lenny Shulman for “Racing Royalty,” a profile of the late Patrice Wolfson that was revealed in BloodHorse on July 1, 2025.
The choose within the characteristic/commentary class was Amanda Duckworth, communications guide for the Worldwide Federation of Horse Racing Authorities. Amy Gregory, former Keeneland Affiliation communications director; Bob Kieckhefer, racing author for United Press Worldwide.
Picture – Skip Dickstein
Veteran Albany Occasions Union and Bloodhorse photographer Skip Dickstein has gained his second Eclipse Award for Excellence in Images for this picture of an unseated Irad Ortiz Jr. taken after the beginning of the Jockey Membership Gold Cup Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 31, 2025.
Dickstein, of Malta, N.Y., first gained the Eclipse Award in 1996 for finishing the Breeders’ Cup Basic at Woodbine Racetrack.
Dick Stein, who was trying by way of his Nikon Z9 180mm-600mm Nikon zoom about 125 toes beneath the wire to movie the beginning of the Gold Cup, seen one thing was incorrect simply after the horse obtained out of the gate. 4-year-old Phileas Fogg, breaking out of put up quantity seven within the eight-horse subject, made a pointy transfer to the left and set off a series response, with Opposite Considering holding again and colliding with White Avario, who slammed into Thoughts Body solidly.
“I saved taking pictures, anticipating one thing uncommon to occur, and the jockey began reacting to it,” Dickstein recalled. He held the shutter down, saved his eye on the viewfinder, and centered on the unfolding motion, creating photographs at a price of 15 frames per second.
Returning to the press field to overview the pictures, Dickstein was transfixed by the shot of Ortiz hanging a few foot off the bottom, clutching the horse’s mane along with his left hand and desperately clutching at White Avario along with his proper.
(Ortiz fell to the bottom and was taken to an area hospital, however escaped critical damage. He returned to driving at Kentucky Downs on September 4.)
“This was among the finest motion photographs I’ve ever taken,” mentioned Dickstein, who has been photographing for the Occasions Union for the previous 45 years and at Bloodhorse since 1978. “I’ve gained[the Eclipse Award]remotely earlier than, however by no means handheld. The hand held photographs are rather more private, so this win provides me nice satisfaction.”
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Dickstein attended Lamar College in Beaumont, Texas, and credit Invoice Clough as his major mentor in photojournalism on the Beaumont Enterprise and Journal newspapers. Dick Stein has lined each Kentucky Derby since 1986, all 42 Breeders’ Cup Championships, and lots of different nationwide sporting occasions together with the Nationwide Observe and Area Championships, Olympic Trials in monitor and subject, bobsled and luge, and the 1980 and 1996 Olympics.
The profitable picture will be seen above right here.
Honorable mentions within the pictures class went to Alex Evers, who accomplished the 2025 Kentucky Derby and gained the 2020 Images Eclipse Award for his Could 3, 2025 Agentes 305 Derby “Sovereignty Reigns,” and Scott Serio, two-time Eclipse Award winner for his Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred “Floating within the Mist.” September 1, 2025.
The jury within the pictures class was John McCutcheon, former head of pictures and video on the San Diego Union-Tribune and supervisor of pictures and video on the Los Angeles Occasions. Veteran Thoroughbred creator and photographer Mike Cain and Getty Pictures Chief Photographer/Chief Sports activities Photographer Rob Kerr.
Multimedia – Freakonomics Radio
Freakonomics Radio’s podcast “Contained in the Horse-Industrial Complicated” explored the large world of horse racing and mentioned numerous features of the trade, from the lives of jockeys to breeding, public sale gross sales, and synthetic insemination to latest adjustments in U.S. immigration coverage. The present was the second in a three-part sequence referred to as “The Horse is Us,” produced by Augusta Chapman and hosted by Stephen Dubner. This program was first broadcast on October thirty first final yr.
New York-based Freakonomics interviewed a wide range of individuals about their views on horse racing. Emily Plant, Thoroughbred researcher and statistician, and Jill Stowe, affiliate professor of selling on the College of Montana. Professor of Economics on the College of Kentucky. Mark Taylor, President of Taylor Made Farm. California Horse Racing Fee Vice Chairman Oscar Gonzalez and Richard Migliore, Head racing analyst for Fox Sports activities and the New York Horse Racing Affiliation and retired jockey.
“I am excited. This sequence is a ardour venture for me,” Chapman mentioned. “That is my favourite venture and profitable this award is a blessing. Our purpose with every sequence is to introduce our viewers to a subject and uncover the trade’s greatest questions. That is the one factor we have spent all our time speaking about all yr. For me, it is nice to have the ability to share it with you.”
Dubner was capable of unearth instructional and revealing interviews along with his topics, particularly Migliore and Taylor. Mr. Migliore began as a jockey on the age of 16 and has been within the saddle for 30 years, rising up within the enterprise from stables to working with horses, speaking concerning the interactions between horses and people, weight achieve, damage restoration, and the compensation construction that jockeys obtain.
“Jockeys have dance companions, and in some ways they’re simply pretty much as good as their dance companions,” Migliore mentioned. “I’ve by no means seen a jockey dismount and carry a horse. For me, it was crucial to grasp the horse’s persona, mentality, strengths and weaknesses. Some jockeys could rely extra on their physicality, as a result of being a jockey it may be exhausting to empathize with somebody who’s smaller than common as an elite athlete, however you’re an elite athlete.”
Taylor, president of TaylorMade Farms in Nicholasville, Kentucky, was happy to be a visitor as a result of “the thoroughbred horse world is freakonomic. It’s extremely unstable. There aren’t many industries or economies the place horses reside, respiratory creatures.” Mr. Taylor emphasised the significance of Lexington, Kentucky, because the hub of the trade, noting Keeneland gross sales, markets, and the essential premise that the perfect stallions are situated in Kentucky. And Kentucky’s soil and local weather made it the right place to breed and lift thoroughbreds.
You’ll be able to view the award-winning works right here.
Honorable mentions within the multimedia class went to Beating the Breeders’ Cup on August 8, 2025: Kevin Attard’s “Moira’s Victory Past a Milestone” by Katie Petruniak of Thoroughbred Day by day Information, and Kristina Bosinakis of Thoroughbred Day by day Information on August 27, 2025, “A tenacious Emma Jane Wilson poised for her subsequent comeback.”
The choose within the multimedia class was John Engelhardt, a 35-year TV, radio and podcast producer and present host of The Common Man on winponies.com. Julie Sarno, freelance author, former editorial employees at BloodHorse, employees at The Meadowlands, employees and division head at Del Mar. and Joe Withey, director of broadcast public relations for Emerald Downs.
