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Keeneland Library Director Ryder Retiring, Ferraro Named Successor

Keeneland Library Director Becky Ryder will retire as of Oct. 31, 2023, following better than a decade at the helm of the Thoroughbred information repository and public research facility, and Roda Ferraro, who formerly served as Head Librarian at Keeneland Library and recently curated its popular The Heart of the Turf: Racing's Black Pioneers exhibit, has been named her successor. Ferraro will serve as the incoming Library Director effective immediately and will work alongside Ryder as she transitions to retirement this fall.

Ryder began her career as a college student working in the Music Library at the University of Virginia. She moved to Lexington for Library School at the University of Kentucky and soon became Head of Preservation Services at the UK Libraries, where she served for 18 years before joining Keeneland. Among the highlights of her tenure as Keeneland Library Director, Ryder oversaw the conversion of a manual card catalog into an online catalog system, which offered the opportunity to implement the Library of Congress shelving system. She initiated the Daily Racing Form Preservation Project while at the University of Kentucky, and with help from interns from UK's School of Information, Keeneland Library continued to make progress toward moving its extensive DRF collection online. Ryder established a framework for Keeneland's Digital Library and hopes to launch the collections by fall of 2023.

“During my career, I've had the good fortune to have had positions that I truly loved: music, books, photographs, travel, book and paper conservation, digital library development and the rich history of Thoroughbred racing,” said Ryder. “I have to say that the 13 years working with the Keeneland family have been the very best in my professional lifetime.”

In her new role, Ferraro brings more than 20 years of experience leading, assessing and promoting library, museum, research and educational services, highlighted by her work with Keeneland Library and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York, since 2014.

“I am grateful to be back home at Keeneland Library,” Ferraro said. “I have connected the public, students and faculty to research and education services at several libraries, museums and universities, but I have never worked with patrons as dedicated and passionate as those I am privileged to engage with every day at Keeneland Library. It has been a joy to build relationships with industry and community partners over the past 10 years, and I look forward to cultivating new collaborative efforts with industry stakeholders as we move the Library forward.”

Said Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin: “Keeneland Library's role in preserving Thoroughbred racing's storied history and making it accessible to fans worldwide is incredibly important to Keeneland. Becky and Roda have both been dedicated stewards of this legacy, using technology, innovation and creativity to advance the Library's goal of being a true public service institution. We thank Becky for expertly guiding the Library through a decade of key expansion and preservation efforts and look forward to continued growth, particularly in education and outreach, under Roda's oversight.”

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NYRA, Nat’l Museum of Racing To Honor ‘Peb’

Edited Press Release

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame will highlight the career and accomplishments of the renowned cartoonist Pierre “Peb” Bellocq during a ceremony at Belmont Park Saturday, July 9, as part of the Stars and Stripes Racing Festival.

In 2020, Bellocq was selected to be a member of the National Museum of Racing's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, NYRA and the Racing Museum have yet to hold a public event to commemorate this honor.

NYRA and the National Museum of Racing will honor Peb's contributions in a variety of ways including a race named in his honor followed by a winner's circle ceremony featuring Bellocq alongside family and friends.

“The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame would like to thank NYRA for generously offering to host this wonderful day in honor of Peb, whose art and humor have captured the unique and vibrant characters and scenes of thoroughbred racing for generations,” said Brien Bouyea, Communications Director at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. “The racing world owes Peb a great deal of gratitude for his lifetime of distinguished work that has brought so much joy to the sport.”

Bellocq, 95, was born in France in 1926. At age 19, the French racing journal France Courses gave him national exposure by publishing one of his cartoons of a jockey. Bellocq signed the drawing as “Peb,” a signature that became his lifelong moniker.

Bellocq decided to relocate to the United States and in 1955 accepted an offer to work as the staff cartoonist for the Morning Telegraph and its sister paper, Daily Racing Form, a job he held until December 2008. Early in this career, Bellocq also produced political cartoons for the Philadelphia Inquirer while simultaneously working for the Form. Bellocq eventually transitioned his primary focus to thoroughbred racing.

Along with his work for the Form, Bellocq has been commissioned by numerous racetracks to produce vibrant murals capturing the flavor of the sport. At Belmont Park, he created a mural which is featured prominently on the second floor of the clubhouse featuring a wide variety of racing personalities. His large-scale cartoon collages have become fixtures at Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Arlington, Oaklawn, Aqueduct, and The Meadowlands.

Peb's work has also featured from time to time in this publication and his son Remi's work appears every Friday on page 2 of the TDN.

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Mahoney Named National Museum of Racing’s Development Director

Maureen Mahoney, who has worked in a variety of capacities at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame since joining the institution in 2015, has been named the Museum's Development Director.

A native of Glens Falls, N.Y., and a graduate of Skidmore College, Mahoney will lead the Museum's development and sponsorship initiatives and assume a prominent role in special events, marketing, and outreach.

“Maureen will do an excellent job as the Development Director,” said Cate Masterson, the Museum's Director. “In her time here she has updated the donor management system and brought the Museum's databases into modern times. She is extremely detailed oriented and enthusiastic about fundraising. Maureen's responsibilities will include grant writing as well. This transition is a natural fit and very well deserved.”

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Privman, Haight, Mann Selected to Hall of Fame Media Roll of Honor

Daily Racing Form national correspondent Jay Privman and the late turf writers Walter Haight and Jack Mann have been selected to the National Museum of Racing's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor.

Privman, 62, a resident of Carlsbad, Ca., covered his first race in 1980–Spectacular Bid's victory in the Malibu Stakes–while in college at California State University, Northridge, and working part-time for The Los Angeles Daily News. Privman worked for The Daily News full-time from 1981 through 1991, then became West Coast editor for The Racing Times (1991 to 1992) and West Coast correspondent for The New York Times (1992 to 1998). He also was a correspondent for The Thoroughbred Record and The Thoroughbred Times (1983 to 1998) before joining Daily Racing Form in October 1998.

Haight (1899-1968), a native of Washington, D.C., joined The Washington Post in 1924, embarking on a prolific 44-year run with the paper. He started with The Post as a general assignment reporter and began covering thoroughbred racing for the paper in 1932. He reported on his first Kentucky Derby that year, beginning a streak of 37 consecutive years writing about the event. Haight was The Post's racing writer and editor for 36 years and held the honorary No. 1 seat in the Churchill Downs press box for his longevity covering the Run for the Roses.

Mann (1925-2000), a New York City native, began his writing career in 1940 while in high school for the weekly Long Islander. After serving with the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946 in the North Pacific during and immediately after World War II, he returned to newspapers as a reporter and editor of two Long Island weeklies, then joined Newsday, first as a reporter, then as assistant city editor, then as sports editor. Specializing in coverage of horse racing and baseball, Mann wrote for Newsday (1952 to 1962); The Detroit Free Press (1962 to 1963); The New York Herald-Tribune (1963 to 1965); Sports Illustrated (1965 to 1967); The Miami Herald (1968 to 1970); The Washington Daily
News (1970 to 1971); The Washington Star (1971 to 1972); The Baltimore Evening Sun (1980 to 1990); and The Racing Times (1991 to 1992), among others. While sports editor at Newsday, Mann led the section's transition from having a local focus to one that covered sports nationwide.

The Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor Committee is comprised of Edward L. Bowen (chairman), author of more than 20 books on Thoroughbred racing; Bob Curran, retired Jockey Club vice president of corporate communications; Ken Grayson, National Museum of Racing trustee; Jane Goldstein, retired turf publicist; Steve Haskin, Secretariat.com and longtime BloodHorse columnist; G. D. Hieronymus, retired Keeneland director of broadcast services; Jay Hovdey, five-time Eclipse Award-winning writer; and Dan Smith, retired senior media coordinator of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

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