NEWSLETTERS

Newsletter dated November 25, 2009

NTWA Newsletter from President Tom Law

Good afternoon fellow members of the National Turf Writers Association. I hope this note reaches everyone in good spirits and ready for tomorrow's Thanksgiving holiday.
It was good to see so many members at this year's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Park despite our living through a difficult economy that has put serious constraints on travel budgets and employment in general.
First things first, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on some decisions the NTWA has made with regards to this year's Eclipse Awards vote and specifically the Horse of the Year vote.
An idea was pitched on November 11 by a member of the Eclipse Awards Steering Committee (which is comprised of two representatives from each of the three presenters of the Eclipse Awards'the NTWA, Daily Racing Form, and National Thoroughbred Racing Association) to consider offering an option for Eclipse Award voters to choose a 'co-Horse of the Year' in addition to the standard voting format.
Shortly after the Steering Committee met via teleconference, I discussed the idea with a dozen individuals who ranged from NTWA past presidents and board members to racing writers representing both daily newspapers and industry trade publications.
The NTWA board also met via teleconference on November 13 to discuss the idea of giving voters a choice to vote for a co-Horse of the Year. The entire nine-member board participated in the call'Tom Law (President), Tom Pedulla (Vice President), Ed DeRosa (Secretary/Treasurer), and board members Mike Brunker, Hank Wesch, Vic Zast, Richard Rosenblatt, Greg Hall, and Marty McGee. (Marty McGee opted to defer comment due to his affiliation both as an NTWA member and director and as member of the Daily Racing Form voting bloc).
The NTWA board came to the decision that offering a co-Horse of the Year option was not a good idea, a decision that was authoritatively reinforced by the other individuals I polled. Due to the overwhelming majority being not in favor of offering such an option, the NTWA, in a subsequent teleconference on November 24 with the Steering Committee, voted against offering the co-Horse of the Year option to Eclipse Award voters in 2009.
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) also voted not to support providing the co-Horse of the Year option, which meant a vote of 2-1 not to change the voting procedure.
Here is a summary of the reasons the NTWA did not support such an option:
1. The Eclipse Awards were created to avoid such a situation (consider that in the days before the Eclipse Awards there were multiple times when there was more than one Horse of the Year determined by DRF and the TRA)
2. The rules should not be changed in the middle of the game just because of the recent outcomes and circumstances.
3. Although the credentials of the top two contenders this year easily outweigh any others, this is not entirely rare and there have been several years where there were more than legitimate contender that did not face each other (board members cited Smarty Jones-Ghostzapper in 2004; Conquistador Cielo and Perrault in 1982; and Slew o' Gold and John Henry in 1984 being three)
4. Horse of the Year means one horse, not horses.
5. Multiple winners not only cheapens the award and essentially puts an invisible asterisk next to the winners, it also opens racing to more criticism because its award system couldn't even do what it was designed to do: determine the champion.
Eligible voters, which are Regular NTWA members in good standing with dues paid as of November 23, will receive ballots sometime in mid-December and voters should expect a very similar set of rules to apply to this year's Eclipse Awards as in previous years. Keeping with rules established several years ago, split votes in any division will not count for that respective division.
 
MEMBERSHIP
If you have any questions regarding your eligibility, please e-mail Secretary Ed DeRosa at EDeRosa@ThoroughbredTimes.com.
If you have chosen not to renew your membership and are still receiving this newsletter, then also let Ed know that you would like to be removed from future distributions.
 
A LOOK AT THE VOTERS
Speaking of votes and voters ' Since the race between the two leading Horse of the Year contenders never materialized on the racetrack, racing's best will be crowned by a decision of about 280 voters.
A great deal has already been written about whether this year's race will be an East Coast vs. West Coast vote. As president of the NTWA and a transplanted New Yorker now living in Kentucky, I was curious to take a look at our membership roster to see where we live after reading about this real or perceived 'East Coast bias' and whether it would affect this year's Horse of the Year vote.
A total of 140 Regular Members in good standing as of November 23 will be eligible to cast votes in the NTWA bloc (this does not include our eight members who work for Daily Racing Form and will vote in the DRF bloc).
A closer look shows that members from three states'Kentucky (36), New York (21), and California (22)'will make up 56% of our voters. The NTWA will have eligible voters from 25 states (including Washington, D.C.), one from Canada, and one from Scotland. The NTWA will also have multiple voters from 17 states.
I placed the states into six distinct regions'Northeast (including Canada and Scotland), Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South, Southwest, and West. Voters from the Midwest region'Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Ohio'make up the largest with 46 eligible voters. The Northeast is next with 36, followed by West (29), Mid-Atlantic (16), Southwest (8), and South (5). 
A complete breakdown is below (Please remember that voters are listed by state of residence and not necessarily based on where the publication they work is based):
By Region:
Northeast (36): Connecticut (2), New York (21), New Jersey (8), Massachusetts (3), Ontario (1), Scotland (1)
Mid-Atlantic (16): Delaware (2), Maryland (6), Pennsylvania (4), Virginia (1), Washington D.C. (3)
Midwest (46): Illinois (7), Indiana (1), Iowa (1), Kentucky (36), Ohio (1)
South (5): Florida (2), Georgia (1), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1)
Southwest (8): Arkansas (2), Louisiana (3), Texas (3)
West (29): California (22), Idaho (1), Nevada (3), Washington (3)
By number:
Kentucky (36), California (22), New York (21), New Jersey (8), Illinois (7), Maryland (6), Pennsylvania (4), Washington, D.C. (3), Louisiana (3), Massachusetts (3), Texas (3), Nevada (3), Washington (3), Arkansas (2), Connecticut (2), Florida (2), Delaware (2), Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Ontario, and Scotland (all with 1) Total: 140
 
NTWA DINNER
The NTWA celebrated its 50th anniversary and honored some outstanding individuals at our annual awards dinner on Wednesday, November 4 at the Altadena Town and Country Club.
A great and lively crowd, which included two of our three award winners Dr. Jack Robbins and Larry Jones, turned out on a picture-perfect evening at what turned out to be a great setting for the event. We also had a taped message from former NTWA President Dan Farley, who was unable to attend the event and accept as the 2009 Walter Haight Award winner for career excellence in Turf writing. Other guests included Hall of Famers Richard Mandella and Eddie Delahoussaye, other owners, trainers, and breeders, racing executives, fans, NTWA members, and other guests.
The evening started with cocktails and silent auction, followed shortly thereafter by a video tribute to the NTWA first president and founder, the late Joe Hirsch. The video was supplied courtesy of HRTV, which was one of nine organizations that purchased a benefactor table. The others were Oak Tree Racing Association (three tables), Del Mar, Daily Racing Form, Dan Liebman, NTRA, Breeders' Cup Ltd., Thoroughbred Times, and the Turf Publicists of America.
We were fortunate to have the following speakers on hand to introduce our three award winners'Louisville Courier-Journal Turf writer and former NTWA President Jennie Rees to present Farley, owner Bo Hirsch to introduce Dr. Jack Robbins, and former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones to introduce Larry Jones.
Breeders' Cup Ltd.'s Jim Gluckson was also on hand to present the return of the Breeders' Cup Writing Awards, which went to Daily Racing Form's Jay Hovdey (Joe Hirsch Newspaper Writing Award), Thoroughbred Times' Jeff Lowe (Bill Leggett Magazine Writing Award), and Bob Ehalt (New Media Award).
We raised approximately $5,000 at this year's event and $1,000 donations in the name of our three award winners have been earmarked for charities selected by our award winners. We are waiting on final determinations for those charities and that will be included in the next newsletter.
 
SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING
The NTWA also conducted its regular semi-annual general and board meetings on November 5 at Santa Anita.
Four new members were voted into the organization - Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times, Vance Hanson of brisnet.com, Jessica Martini of Thoroughbred Daily News, and Bill Marshall of the Augusta Chronicle.
The membership also received an update on the end of the four-year contract with Youbet.com Inc. to fund the Youbet/NTWA Journalism Scholarship. Continuing some discussions from our spring meeting, the NTWA started the process to honor Joe Hirsch in a more permanent way and a committee was formed to investigate options related to another journalism scholarship supported and funded by the NTWA. Jay Privman, Vic Zast, Brad Telias, and Tom Law are part of the committee charged with exploring some options, which we hope will continue to involve Elisabeth Jensen and the folks at the Race for Education, who have been hugely helpful with the Youbet/NTWA Journalism Scholarship.
 
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or issues. I am available via e-mail at tlaw@thoroughbredtimes.com, at my office at 859-260-9800 ext. 125, or on my cell phone at 859-396-9407. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks for your time.