Entries for Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award Announced

[Wandering Eyes]

Now in its 14th year of honoring the best long-form writing about an ancient and noble sport, entries have been announced for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award.

Since its inception by the late Dr. Ryan in 2006, submissions have come from around the globe to compete for a $10,000 winner’s prize. Authors have included winners of the National Book Award, Eclipse Award, Faulkner Society Award, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and an Emmy nominee.

Winners have traditionally been announced each April at a reception held in the historic stallion barn at the Ryan family’s Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington, Kentucky. This year will be different due to the broad reach of COVID-19; the springtime celebration honoring the winner and finalists has been postponed for now, with plans to reschedule as a possibly scaled-back event in the fall.

Each of these 15 books is currently available for online purchase and include masterful works of fiction and non-fiction, mysteries and romance, memoirs—both horse and human—personal storytelling, history, handicapping, and how-to.

“If you miss racing, as we do, the next best thing might be to shelter at home with one of these books,” lead judge Kay Coyte, former Washington Post and racing publications editor, said. “These 15 titles represent what I love most about the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award-Castleton Lyons—and the trying task of deciding on a short list of finalists. All are excellent examples of their genre within horse racing literature, and all are winners.”

Below is a list of current entries, each published in the 2019 calendar year, arranged alphabetically by title.

Backstretch Girls, by Dawn LeFevre

Better Lucky Than Good: Tall Tales and Straight Talk from the Backside of the Track, by various authors, from Louisville Story Program  

Blood in the Bluegrass, by D.C. Alexander  

Blood in the Bluegrass, by Virginia Slachman

The Hidden Horses of New York, by Natalie Reinert 

Justify, by Lenny Shulman 

Kentucky Horse Tales, by Ercel Ellis Jr. 

The Key to the Quarter Pole, by Robin Traywick Williams 

Montana Horse Racing: A History, by Brenda Wahler

Racing Time: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Liberation, by Patrick Smithwick

Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown, by Jennifer S. Kelly   

The Skeptical Handicapper: Using Data and Brains to Win at the Racetrack, by Barry Meadow

Spectacular Bid: The Last Superhorse of the Twentieth Century, by Peter Lee

The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga’s Greatest Race, by Brien Bouyea & Michael Veitch

The Triumph of Henry Cecil, by Tony Rushmer

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