Pimlico Names Preakness Media Award Winners
Pimlico
Race Course today announced the winners of this year’s Preakness media
awards. Honorees will be recognized and awards presented at the May 16
Alibi Breakfast in the Terrace Dining Room. The ceremony is scheduled
for 10 a.m., two days prior to the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, the
$1 million Preakness® Stakes (G1).
The
Special Award of Merit is given to someone who has made a positive
impact on the racing industry. The 2013 winner is Horse Player NOW.
Founded by Jeremy Plonk and Joe Kristufek, Horse Player NOW has provided
handicapping tips, picks and analysis to more nearly 20 racetracks
since 2009. The organization’s Night School, on Tuesday night’s since
2011, offers free online fan education. The Horse Player NOW team will
be offering Wagering 101 advice in the Pimlico infield on Preakness
weekend for the fourth consecutive year.
Daily Racing Form writer Jay Privman is the recipient of the David F. Woods Award for his feature on last year’s winning trainer Doug O’Neill. Privman becomes the eighth person to win the award multiple times, previously winning in 2002. The
Woods Award honors the best story for the previous year. Judging was
done by Preakness notes team members Ed Gray, Mike Kane and Matt Graves,
all award winning turf writers.
Daily Racing Form photographer Barbara Livingston is the winner of the Jerry Frutkoff Preakness Photo Award, sponsored by Nikon. Livingston captured I’ll Have Another and Bodemeister from below the rail as the duo neared the finish line in Preakness 137. Judging was completed by Nikon’s Brien Aho and Maryland Jockey Club photographers Jim McCue and Jerry Dzierwinski.
The
prestigious Old Hilltop Award will be bestowed upon WBAL-TV sports
director Gerry Sandusky and Horse Racing Radio Network’s Mike Penna for
covering Thoroughbred racing with excellence and distinction. Sandusky
will be covering his 25th Preakness next month and has anchored the station’s Preakness day coverage on-site since 2001. The
Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN) has provided Eclipse Award-winning
coverage of racing’s biggest events since 2005. HRRN has been the
exclusive radio partner of the Preakness Stakes for six years.
Baltimore
radio personalities Scott Garceau and Keith Mills, former broadcast
partners at WMAR-TV from 1987-2006, will host the event for the fifth
consecutive year.
Most Rev. William Lori, the Archbishop of Baltimore, will provide the invocation for the second straight year.
The Alibi Breakfast is a popular fixture of Preakness week festivities, starting in the late 1930s on the porch of the historical Pimlico Clubhouse when a group of trainers, owners and other dignitaries would gather in the mornings to expound upon the merits of their horses. Today’s event is a descendant of the original gathering to celebrate the event and solicit interesting race predictions.