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Courtney, Eurton, Gaudet and Yu To Host Eclipse Awards

Acacia Courtney, Britney Eurton, Gabby Gaudet and Michelle Yu have been named as the hosts of the 51st Annual Eclipse Awards to be held Thursday evening, Feb. 10, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Courtney, Eurton and Gaudet began hosting the event together in 2020, while this will be Yu's first appearance as a host.

Courtney is in her sixth year as on-air talent at Gulfstream Park, while also working for the New York Racing Association as the host for 'America's Day at the Races' and Saratoga Live on FOX Sports.

Eurton is primarily a reporter with TVG, having joined the network in 2014, but also contributes to NBC Sports' coverage of the Triple Crown, Royal Ascot and the Breeders' Cup.

Now a TVG analyst, Gaudet, the daughter of trainers Linda and the late Eddie Gaudet, began her career as a paddock analyst for the Maryland Jockey Club in 2013 and has held similar positions at Arlington, Gulfstream and Keeneland. She also served on the NYRA broadcast team as a racing analyst and reporter and is a current member of the on-air talent at TVG. Gaudet joined the network in 2019.

Yu is a member of the Santa Anita simulcast team who broke into the business as a hotwalker before moving on to TV production. Her resume includes FOX, Breeders' Cup, HRTV, TVG and a variety of international programming.

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Courtney, Eurton, Gaudet, And Yu To Host Eclipse Awards On Feb. 10 At Santa Anita

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers And Broadcasters (NTWAB) announced today that preeminent broadcast talent Acacia Courtney, Britney Eurton, Gabby Gaudet and Michelle Yu will host the 51st Annual Eclipse Awards on Thursday, Feb. 10 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

The Eclipse Awards, which honors the 2021 champions of Thoroughbred racing, will be held in California for the first time since 2012. Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be announced at Santa Anita and live on TVG, and other outlets, beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The evening will culminate with the announcement of the 2021 Horse of the Year.

Eclipse Awards tickets and information on the awards show, dinner and party is available at the NTRA website https://www.ntra.com/eclipse-awards/.

Courtney, Eurton and Gaudet began hosting the Eclipse Awards ceremony together in 2020. Yu joins as a host for the first time.

Courtney is in her sixth year as a handicapper and paddock reporter for Gulfstream Park's simulcast feed. She also works with the New York Racing Association and is one of the hosts of the popular show America's Day at the Races, and a paddock reporter for Saratoga Live, both on FOX Sports. A native of Connecticut, Courtney began riding at the age of eight, training in the hunter-jumper and dressage disciplines.

In 2011, Courtney founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Racing for Home, Inc., which she runs with her mother, Sherrie. Accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, Racing for Home is dedicated to retraining and re-homing Off-Track Thoroughbreds for new careers after the track.

Eurton serves as a reporter and host for many of horse racing's largest events through her continuing work with TVG Network and NBC Sports, including the Triple Crown, Royal Ascot, and the Breeders' Cup World Championships. Eurton began her broadcasting career in 2014 with TVG Network, where she covers Thoroughbred racing across the U.S. and internationally.

Eurton, who made her NBC Sports debut in June 2017 on the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, worked her first Triple Crown for NBC Sports in 2018 and was a co-host for the network's coverage of Royal Ascot in 2019. She resides in Los Angeles and is a graduate of the University of Southern California. She is the daughter of Peter Eurton, a former jockey and accomplished Thoroughbred trainer.

Gaudet grew up in a horse racing family as her parents, Linda and the late Eddie Gaudet, were trainers in the Mid-Atlantic region. She began her career as a racing analyst and paddock reporter for the Maryland Jockey Club in 2013 and from there went on to cover horse racing nationally at Arlington Park, the Breeders' Cup, and at Gulfstream Park. In 2016, she joined the New York Racing Association's broadcast team as a racing analyst and reporter.

In 2019, Gaudet joined TVG on a year-round basis as an analyst and reporter covering premier racing including the Gulfstream Park Championship Meet, Keeneland and Churchill Downs. In addition to being part of the Keeneland team in April as co-host of “Today at Keeneland” and as paddock commentator, Gaudet expanded her responsibilities with the track to include U.S. sales representation and recruitment. Gaudet is married to trainer Norm Casse. Her sister, Lacey Gaudet, is also a trainer.

Yu is currently a member of the award-winning Santa Anita Park simulcast team. An avid horsewoman from a young age, Yu's first foray onto the backside was as a hotwalker before moving onto TV production. Eventually this landed her in front of the camera as an analyst and presenter. After nearly two decades in the industry, her resume includes FOX, Breeders' Cup, HRTV, TVG and various international shows. Yu is married to Santa Anita based trainer Ryan Hanson and they have two children, Olivia (5) and Spencer (3). Still involved in horses daily, Yu assists in yearling pretraining and is also an owner.

The Eclipse Awards are sponsored by Roberts Communications, Four Roses Bourbon, Daily Racing Form, Breeders' Cup, FanDuel Group, The Stronach Group and 1/ST Racing, Santa Anita Park, TVG, Dean Dorton, Stonestreet Farm, Keeneland, Racetrack Television Network, Jackson Family Wines, Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, Hallway Feeds and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The Eclipse Awards are named after the great 18th-century racehorse and foundation sire Eclipse, who began racing at age five and was undefeated in 18 starts, including eight walkovers. Eclipse sired the winners of 344 races, including three Epsom Derbies.

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TRF To Host Lowell 20th Anniversary Show

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) will host a worldwide livestream event Thursday, October 21 at 8 p.m. ET, celebrating the transformative power of horses through the TRF Lowell 20th Anniversary Horse Show. The virtual event will bring viewers inside the horse farm at the Lowell facility and provide an opportunity to experience the connection between the horses and the women currently participating in the program. The Lowell Horse Show will also shine a spotlight on several women who have successfully graduated from the program and gone on to brighter futures post-incarceration.

The live event will be co-hosted by Kim Weir, Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving at the TRF; and Lonny Powell, CEO of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association (FTBOA). The two organizations collaborate closely to raise the funds required to care for the 50 horses in the TRF herd at Lowell Correctional Institution. Weir and Powell will be joined by Hall of Fame Thoroughbred Trainer, Mark Casse; FOX Sports Racing Analyst Acacia Courtney; and Niall Brennan of Niall Brennan Stables. The global audience will be invited to participate in an interactive online Q & A at the event's conclusion.

“Everyone who works with and cares for horses knows that they make us better people,” said Weir.” Without judgment, and without words, they teach us to be stronger, calmer, more present, more confident and more empathetic.

“The Lowell Horse Show offers a unique window for the whole world to see, hear and feel the impact that the retired racehorses have on the lives of the women at Lowell,” Weir continued. “I believe that everyone who joins us on October 21st will be inspired, uplifted and perhaps more hopeful about the potential for Second Chances in our challenging world.”

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NYRA, FOX Sports TV Analyst Acacia Courtney Joins Writers’ Room

One of the stars of the successful New York Racing Association and Fox Sports daily broadcast from Saratoga, Acacia Courtney joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Courtney gave her impressions on the early part of the Saratoga meet and talked strategy when it comes to analyzing the 2-year-old races that are so integral to the programs at the Spa.

Asked about the different feeling in the air at tracks this year with fans back in attendance, Courtney said, “One of the greatest things about horse racing is the swell of the crowd and people cheering. If there's a photo finish, you hear the groan one way or the other. I think that throughout the past year, we almost kind of got used to it being quiet. So opening day just felt so great. Everybody seemed happy, everybody was enjoying themselves, even if their tickets were losing, and getting a chance to see some of the fans, people coming over and saying that they had watched our show during quarantine and how much they appreciated what we had been doing really meant a lot because–and I always say you don't want to sound spoiled because I was one of the few people that got to be at Saratoga last summer. But you were drained at the end of the day because there was no crowd. There wasn't the same level of excitement as there is this year.”

Elsewhere in the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Spendthrift Farm, Legacy Bloodstock, Woodford Thoroughbreds and the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association's 2021 Yearling Sale, the writers talked about what the latest developments in the FBI indictments case mean, remembered the great Bernardini and looked forward to a monster weekend of racing. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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