Rep. Stan McClain Honored With FTBOA Award

Florida House of Representatives Stan McClain will receive the inaugural Matt Bryan Distinguished Advocacy Award from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association at their annual Gala Monday. In a press release Friday, the FTBOA acknowledged McClain as helping to extend House Bill 7063, an incentives package for Florida breeding and racing interests.

“We were excited to be able to expand Florida's investment supporting the Florida Thoroughbred industry on a long-term basis,” said McClain. “I'm looking forward to watching how this investment helps the industry thrive in upcoming years.”

Rep. McClain is the first honoree of the Matt Bryan Distinguished Advocacy Award named in honor of Matt Bryan, FTBOA's 30-year veteran lobbyist. Bryan, who will retire at year's end, will also be honored for his career with the FTBOA at the Gala.

The post Rep. Stan McClain Honored With FTBOA Award appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Ed Brown Society Awarded $50K

Edited Press Release

The Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative (LBPI) and the Blue Grass Community Foundation (BGCF) have announced an award of $50,000 to further the mission of the Ed Brown Society. The award consists of pooled funding from LBPI, BGCF and the Walton Family Foundation, through the Better Together Grants program. The Ed Brown Society (EBS) will use these funds to provide scholarships and professional development opportunities to students of color pursuing professional careers within the equine industry.

EBS Chairman Greg Harbut said, “We're excited about what this award will mean to the development of the next group of Ed Brown Scholars that we will be announcing soon. The highest level of commitment an entity can show to the work of the Ed Brown Society is demonstrated by becoming an Ed Brown Partner. 1/ST and Churchill Downs have each made that commitment. Yet, today is a milestone moment because, with this tremendous gift, the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative and the Blue Grass Community Foundation have earned the distinction of the Ed Brown Partnership designation. We are delighted to now have an Ed Brown Partner at home, in Lexington–The Horse Capital of the World.”

The post Ed Brown Society Awarded $50K appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

’21 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award Semifinalists Announced

Six semifinalists for the 16th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award have been selected by a panel of judges and were split evenly this year between fiction and non-fiction. The semifinalists were chosen from nearly two dozen submissions.

The six semifinalists for books published in the 2021, listed alphabetically by title, are as follows:

  • Death by Equine, by Annette Dashofy
  • Dinky Becomes a Racehorse, by J. M. Chodkowski
  • Head to Head, Conversations With a Generation of Horse Racing Legends, by Lenny Schulman
  • Run With a Mighty Heart, by Jennifer Morrison
  • The Magic of Horses, edited by Joe Clancy and Nina Gardner

With a $10,000 winner's prize, the award was launched in 2006 by the late businessman and philanthropist Dr. Tony Ryan. Three finalists will be announced via press release in June and a winner will be crowned on Nov. 3 at a by-invitation winner's cocktail reception to be held at the Ryan family's Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington.

For more information, contact Betsy Hager at bhager@castletonlyons.com.

The post ’21 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award Semifinalists Announced appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Alex Waldrop Honored With Clay Puett Award For Outstanding Contributions To Racing

Alex Waldrop, who will retire at year's end as President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), has been honored with the 2021 Clay Puett Award for outstanding contributions to the racing industry. The award, which was bestowed upon Waldrop at last week's 47th Annual University of Arizona Global Symposium on Racing, was established in 1994 and is named after Clay Puett, an Arizona resident whose innovations, including the development of the mechanical starting gate, helped to revolutionize racing around the world.

Waldrop has had a distinguished career in the horse racing industry, serving as President of Churchill Downs and later as Chair of the equine, gaming, and entertainment practice group at the Kentucky-based law firm Wyatt Tarrant & Combs, where he served as the NTRA's general counsel before joining the organization full-time in his current role.

Under Waldrop's leadership, the NTRA grew its footprint in Washington, D.C., solidifying its position as the industry's leading voice and the entity that represents all segments of the Thoroughbred industry on Capitol Hill. As the trade association for the Thoroughbred industry, the NTRA has focused its lobbying on legislation having a direct and material impact on its members and their business activities as they relate to horse racing, breeding and pari-mutuel wagering.

Support of and by horseplayers led to one of the biggest highlights during Waldrop's time at the NTRA when in 2017 the U.S. Treasury Department formally adopted modernized regulations regarding the withholding and reporting of winning pari-mutuel wagers. The new regulations were the culmination of nearly a decade of work on Capitol Hill by the NTRA, and overnight resulted in dramatically reduced reporting obligations for horseplayers and practically eliminated withholding on winning wagers, allowing horseplayers to retain more of their winnings.

Waldrop also serves as President of NTRA Horse PAC®, the Federal Political Action Committee of the NTRA that has raised more than $5 million through voluntary contributions to support political parties and candidates for elective office at the federal level.

In 2008, Waldrop and the NTRA led an industry-wide effort that resulted in the creation of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance, an entirely new program and self-regulatory body that for more than a decade has identified and implemented national safety and integrity standards at many of the nation's leading racetracks.

The NTRA's group purchasing arm, NTRA Advantage, realized unparalleled success during Waldrop's tenure. Advantage surpassed $1 billion in sales to the equine industry in 2019 and has provided nearly $200 million in savings to industry participants.

Earlier in Waldrop's career, as President of Churchill Downs racetrack, he led the effort to develop a master plan for renovation of the historic Churchill Downs, which led to a $126 million modernization of the facility and paved the way for future capital investments on the property that continue to this day.

Clay Puett Award Recipients:

2021 — Alexander M. Waldrop
2019 — Cella Family
2018 — Joe Harper
2017 — Bob Curran, Jr.
2016 — Pierre Bellocq
2015 — Marylou Whitney
2014 — Mary Scollay
2013 — Michael Blowen
2012 — Sherwood “Chilly” Chillingworth
2011 — The Race For Education
2010 — The Grayson–Jockey Club Foundation
2009 — Richard Duchossios
2008 — Jim McKay
2007 — Stan Bergstein
2006 — Jay Hickey and The American Horse Council
2005 — WinStar Farm
2004 — Trudy McCaffery
2003 — Cothran 'Cot' Campbell
2002 — The Mabee Family
2001 — Joe Hirsch
2000 — John Gaines
1999 — The Vessels Family
1998 — The Brady Family
1997 — The Hancock Family
1996 — The Phipps Family
1995 — Allen Paulson
1994 — Clement Hirsch

The post Alex Waldrop Honored With Clay Puett Award For Outstanding Contributions To Racing appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights