Lexington, Ky. (Jan. 8, 2026) ─ The Nationwide Thoroughbred Racing Affiliation, Day by day Racing Type, and the Nationwide Turf Writers and Broadcasters at the moment introduced the winners of the 2025 Media Eclipse Awards in six classes. Each entry should have been primarily printed or aired for the primary time between Nov. 16, 2024, and Nov. 14, 2025.
The 2025 Media Eclipse Award winners are as follows:
Dwell Tv Programming – FOX Sports activities, “The Belmont Stakes,” Michael Mulvihill, President – Perception & Analytics, June 7, 2025
Characteristic Tv – FOX Sports activities, “The Therapeutic Journey,” Michael Mulvihill President – Perception & Analytics, June 7, 2025
Writing – Information/Enterprise – Natalie Voss, Paulick Report – “Doom Scroll: Thoroughbreds, Bail Pens, And Horse Merchants,” December 2024
Writing – Characteristic/Commentary – Jay Privman, DRF.com and Day by day Racing Type, “Lukas Morphed from Caustic to Avuncular,” June 29, 2025
Images – Skip Dickstein, “Unseated,” The Albany Occasions-Union and BloodHorse, Aug. 31, 2025
Multimedia – Augusta Chapman and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics Radio “The Horse is Us: Contained in the Horse-Industrial Complicated,” Oct. 31, 2025
Media Eclipse Award winners will probably be introduced their trophies on the 55th Annual Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards Ceremony and Dinner at The Breakers Palm Seashore in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 22.
Dwell Tv Programming – FOX Sports activities
FOX Sports activities has received its first Dwell Tv Programming Eclipse Award for the reside broadcast of the 157th working of the Belmont Stakes Offered by NYRA Bets, which aired on June 7, 2025, from Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
The 2025 Belmont Stakes featured the much-awaited rematch between Kentucky Derby Offered by Woodford Reserve winner Sovereignty and Preakness Stakes winner Journalism. Sovereignty defeated Journalism within the Derby however his connections bypassed the Preakness, establishing the extremely anticipated confrontation between the 2 colts within the Belmont, with Sovereignty prevailing. FOX devoted 5 hours of reside protection on its essential community for the Belmont Stakes.
FOX deployed 40 digicam for its protection, of which 12 have been SSMo, 8 RF and 4 cameras working on a non-public 5G community offered by CP Communications. FOX employed a drone and helicopter as effectively and two jitacam point-to-point digicam methods.
Invoice Richards and Pete Macheska produced the published, with Bryan Lilley because the director. Curt Menefee was the host and was joined by analysts Tom Amoss and Richard Migliore; Jonathon Kinchen and Chris Fallica have been wagering analysts; Charissa Thompson, paddock host; Tom Rinaldi, particular options reporter; Maggie Wolfendale, reporter; Terry Bradshaw, commentator, and Frank Mirahmadi, racecaller.
“All of us at Fox Sports activities are grateful for this honor,” stated Michael Mulvihill, FOX Sports activities President of Insights & Analytics. “We have been lucky to have a really particular Belmont Stakes winner in Sovereignty and the very best setting on the planet in Saratoga, and our crew led by producer Invoice Richards and director Bryan Lilley delivered a broadcast worthy of the occasion. An amazing day on the races is a poem, a puzzle and a celebration and hopefully that’s what we delivered to hundreds of thousands of followers on Belmont Day.”
Honorable point out within the Dwell Tv Programming class went to NBC Sports activities for the 2025 Kentucky Derby; Lindsay Schanzer, Sr. Coordinating Producer.
Judges within the Dwell Tv Programming class have been Kristine Kugler, Horse Racing Producer, ESPN; Dick Jerardi, former columnist for the Philadelphia Day by day Information, and Jack Renaud, a 30-year producer with CBS Information, recurring protection of Thoroughbred points and options.
Tv Characteristic – FOX Sports activities
FOX Sports activities has received the Tv Characteristic Media Eclipse Award for “The Therapeutic Journey,” which aired on June 7, 2025. That is the second Tv Characteristic Eclipse Award for FOX, which had beforehand received it in 2019 for a narrative on the champion filly Rachel Alexandra.
Narrated by Tom Rinaldi, “The Therapeutic Journey” profiled the Mott racing household and the devastating lack of Margot Mott, daughter of coach Riley Mott and his spouse, Megan, and granddaughter to Corridor of Fame coach Invoice Mott. Margot misplaced her battle to a type of mind most cancers at age two in 2024.
The characteristic started with the unfolding of a particular bond between father and son when Riley began coming to Invoice’s barn at about 5 years outdated and developed right into a ardour for the game. The bond grew as Riley joined in Invoice’s outstanding success on his technique to changing into a Corridor of Fame coach.
By 2023, Riley and Megan have been blessed with their first youngster, daughter Margot. That fall, Margot was identified with a big tumor at the back of her head and he or she needed to be in surgical procedure inside 12 hours. Her life was by no means the identical. Three months after the prognosis, she handed away in her mom’s arms.
In coping with anguish of the loss Riley Mott stated, “My household and our two sons saved my life, however I feel the horses have been probably the most therapeutic factor I may have at the moment.” And as Renaldi intoned, “Coaching and racing held the Mott household collectively.”
They usually have been collectively when Sovereignty received the Kentucky Derby final Might. “That was the only most particular second I had with my dad,” stated Riley.
The characteristic captured a heat embrace of Invoice and Riley close to the infield winner’s circle at Churchill Downs following the Derby victory, and concludes with footage of Margot on prime of a horse and her standing in entrance a horse’s stall.
“Storytelling is the spine of what we do at Fox Sports activities,” stated Michael Mulvihill of FOX Sports activities. “We’re deeply grateful to the Mott household for putting their belief and confidence in Tom Rinaldi and our producer Etienne Materre to inform their story. We want to humbly share this honor with all the Mott household.”
The successful entry might be seen right here.
Honorable point out within the Tv Characteristic class went to NBC Sports activities for its characteristic of Steve Kornacki spending time with Corridor of Fame coach D. Wayne Lukas, which aired on Might 3, 2025, and was produced by Elinore Wright. Honorable point out additionally went to Netflix “Race for the Crown,” Kentucky Derby episode; Ian Sambor, Producer.
Judges within the Tv Characteristic class have been Bob Curran, trade communications guide; Dave Johnson, monitor announcer, tv analyst, and race caller for ABC Sports activities, and now co-host of Down The Stretch on SiriusXM; and Patty Wolfe, Multimedia Eclipse Award winner and three-time Emmy winner at ABC Sports activities.
Writing – Information/Enterprise – Natalie Voss
In her four-part collection, “Doom Scroll: Thoroughbreds, Bail Pens, And Horse Merchants,” which was printed within the Paulick Report in December 2024, Natalie Voss offered an in depth evaluation on the strategies, reactions and ramifications of bail pens, a brand new and rising financial system through which horses, together with many Thoroughbreds, are supplied on the market to the general public underneath the risk that they are going to be exported and rendered for meat if a steep “bail worth” isn’t paid.
That is the fourth Media Eclipse Award for Voss, of Georgetown, Ky.
“I am so honored to win the Eclipse for this collection as a result of this topic is extremely vital to me,” stated Voss. “I did quite a lot of reporting that intersected with the bail pen financial system in my profession and was all the time a little bit stunned after I’d encounter racing stakeholders who did not know a lot about it. I additionally acknowledged there wasn’t quite a lot of unbiased reference materials on the market about it, so I endeavored to create a collection that would break down its complexities, and in addition supply micro- and macro-level options and perspective for somebody making an attempt to navigate the house.”
Voss, who’s now Director of Communications for United States Equestrian Federation, received the Media Eclipse Award for Information/Enterprise in 2016, and in 2020 in Information/ Enterprise and in Characteristic/Commentary. All have been written for the Paulick Report. She was with the Paulick Report for 12 years, and was editor-in-chief at time of her departure in 2025.
The successful entry might be seen right here.
Honorable point out within the Information/Enterprise class went to Joe Clancy for “Journalism Writes a Masterpiece in Preakness Thriller,” which appeared within the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred within the July 1 version, and his brother, Sean Clancy, a three-time Media Eclipse Award winner for “Summer time Studying” a information article on the 2025 Travers Stakes, which appeared on Aug. 27 in The Saratoga Particular.
Judges within the Information/Enterprise class have been Dan Liebman, former editor of BloodHorse and The State-Journal in Frankfort, Ky.; Jim Mulvihill, Director of promoting communications for Denver-based Kroenke Sports activities & Leisure, former editor and NTRA Communications Director; and David Papadopoulos, Managing Editor, Bloomberg Information.
Writing – Characteristic/Commentary – Jay Privman
Jay Privman has received the Characteristic/Commentary Media Eclipse Award for “Lukas Morphed from Caustic to Avuncular,” recalling the dynamic profession of the late Corridor of Fame coach D. Wayne Lukas and his private evolution throughout greater than 4 many years as a significant pressure in Thoroughbred racing. The article first appeared on the Day by day Racing Type’s web site DRF.com on June 29, the day following Lukas’s passing.
It’s the first Media Eclipse Award for Privman, of Carlsbad, Calif. Retired in 2022 after overlaying the game since 1980, Privman was honored with a Particular Eclipse Award for Profession Excellence in 2023.
“Wayne Lukas was a considerably impactful determine within the sport, but his story arc was largely unknown by those that weren’t round when he first got here on the scene,” stated Privman. “Having lined him for greater than 40 years, I used to be lucky to have the attitude of that arc, and the nice fortune that my outdated employer, Day by day Racing Type, was desirous of working a bit that showcased the totality of Wayne’s saga.
“I’m indebted to Day by day Racing Type editor Jody Swavy, and managing editor Irwin Cohen, for offering the house for the essay, and particularly to Frank Mirahmadi, the monitor announcer at Santa Anita and Saratoga, who first prompt the piece and was insistent I do it. Most of all, thanks goes to Wayne, for his distinctive story and for exhibiting that persons are difficult and might evolve, that they don’t seem to be caricatures of their greatest nor worst moments.”
Privman first lined Lukas for the Los Angeles Day by day Information on the 1980 Santa Anita Derby and wrote about him for the final time in an interview previous to the 2022 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course when he was nationwide correspondent for Day by day Racing Type.
In ‘Caustic to Avuncular,’ Privman describes Lukas shifting from the Quarter Horse scene of the late Nineteen Seventies to hitting Thoroughbred racing like a hurricane: daring, brash, and off-putting to fellow trainers as he shortly climbed the ladder of success sporting finely tailor-made fits and immaculate secure areas dotting all the nation; grabbing the media highlight whereas piling up wins within the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup. Over time Lukas endured his personal adjustments of fortune, tailored to the occasions, continued successful, and established a thriving legacy amongst colleagues and followers as the favored and beloved “Coach.”
“His teaching tree already has produced excellent disciples, and can reside on for many years,” Privman wrote. “His exacting requirements for the best way a barn appears to be like, and the best way individuals who work there act, has been carried on by these trainers, and lots of who’ve lengthy admired Lukas, even when they didn’t work for him, like Kenny McPeek. Lukas’s imprint on the gross sales ring, by way of what a horseman appears to be like for, and the costs paid for these horses, has been substantial.
Alongside the best way, Lukas modified. He advanced with the occasions, by way of methods to prepare the modern-day racehorse, and the societal calls for therein, and methods to take care of individuals, too. He appeared glad, appreciative, and, most of all, content material.”
The successful article might be seen: right here.
Honorable point out within the Characteristic/Commentary class went to Lenny Shulman for “Racing Royalty,” a profile of the late Patrice Wolfson, which was printed in BloodHorse on July 1, 2025.
Judges within the Characteristic/Commentary class have been Amanda Duckworth, communications guide for the Worldwide Federation of Horseracing Authorities; Amy Gregory, former Director of Communications, Keeneland Affiliation; and Bob Kieckhefer, Racing Author, United Press Worldwide.
Images – Skip Dickstein
Skip Dickstein, veteran photographer from the Albany Occasions-Union and BloodHorse has received his second Eclipse Award for Excellent Images for his picture of an unseated Irad Ortiz Jr. taken after the beginning of the Aug. 31, 2025, Jockey Membership Gold Cup Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Dickstein, of Malta, N.Y., received his first Eclipse Award in 1996 for the end of the Breeders’ Cup Traditional at Woodbine Racetrack.
Trying by means of his Nikon Z9 180mm-600mm Nikon zoom about 125 toes down previous the wire to shoot the beginning of the Gold Cup, Dickstein observed one thing mistaken shortly after the horses broke from the gate. The 4-year-old Phileas Fogg, breaking from the seventh submit place in an eight-horse discipline moved sharply to his left and brought on a sequence response, forcing Opposite Pondering to shy in bumping White Abarrio, who in flip bumped solidly into Mindframe.
“I stayed with the shot in anticipation that one thing uncommon was more likely to occur and the jockeys began to react to it,” Dickstein recalled. He stayed on the shutter launch and targeting the motion because it advanced, by no means taking his eye from the viewfinder, making pictures at a charge of 15 frames per second.
When Dickstein returned to the press field to look at his pictures, he was transfixed on a shot of Ortiz holding onto the mane of his mount along with his left hand, whereas desperately holding onto White Abarrio along with his proper hand because the rider dangled a few foot above the bottom.
(Ortiz fell to the bottom, was taken to a neighborhood hospital, however averted critical harm. He returned to using on Sept. 4 at Kentucky Downs.)
“It was the most effective motion pictures I’ve ever made,” stated Dickstein, who has been photographing for the Occasions-Union the previous 45 years, and for BloodHorse since 1978. “I’ve received it (the Eclipse Award) earlier than from a distant, however by no means a handheld picture. This brings a better sense of satisfaction as the handheld picture is way extra private.”
Born and raised in Albany, N.Y., Dickstein attended Lamar College in Beaumont, Texas, and credit Invoice Clough as his major picture journalism mentor on the Beaumont Enterprise and Journal Newspaper. Dickstein has lined each Kentucky Derby since 1986 and all 42 Breeders’ Cup Championships in addition to many different nationwide sporting occasions together with the Nationwide Observe and Area Championships, the Olympic Trials for Observe and Area and Bobsled and Luge in addition to the 1980 and 1996 Olympic Video games.
The successful picture might be seen above right here.
Honorable point out within the Images class went to Alex Evers, the 2020 Images Eclipse winner for his end of the 2025 Kentucky Derby, “Sovereignty Reigns Supreme,” Derby, which appeared in Agentes 305 on Might 3, 2025, and to two-time Eclipse Award winner Scott Serio for “Floating within the Fog,” which appeared in Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred on Sept. 1, 2025.
Judges within the Images class have been John McCutcheon, former Director of Images and Video on the San Diego Union-Tribune and supervisor of Images and Video at The Los Angeles Occasions; Mike Kane, veteran Thoroughbred author and photographer, and Rob Carr, Chief Photographer, Getty Photographs/Chief Photographer, Sport.
Multimedia – Freakonomics Radio
The Freakonomics Radio Podcast “Contained in the Horse-Industrial Complicated,” examined the wide-ranging world of horse racing, and mentioned the varied sides of the trade by means of from the lifetime of the jockey, to breeding, public sale gross sales, and points from synthetic insemination to latest adjustments in U.S. immigration coverage. This system, the second of the three-part collection “The Horse is Us,” was produced by Augusta Chapman and hosted by Stephen Dubner. This system first aired final yr on Oct. 31.
Freakonomics, primarily based in New York, interviewed a variety of people for his or her perspective on horse racing: Emily Plant, Thoroughbred researcher and statistician, affiliate professor of promoting on the College of Montana, Jill Stowe; professor of economics on the College of Kentucky; Mark Taylor, president of Taylor Made Farm; Oscar Gonzales, vice chair of the California Horse Racing Board, and Richard Migliore, head racing analyst for Fox Sports activities and New York Racing Affiliation, and retired jockey.
“I’m thrilled, this collection is a ardour challenge for me,” stated Chapman. “It’s been my favourite challenge and to win this award is a payoff. Our objective in every collection is to introduce the viewers into a subject and discover out the most important questions within the trade. It’s been all- consuming and it’s all I may speak about for a yr. For me it feels nice that I can share it with everybody.”
Dubner was capable of unearth academic and revealing interviews along with his topics, particularly with Migliore and Taylor. Migliore instructed his life story beginning as a rider at 16 and within the saddle for 30 years, rising up within the enterprise from mucking stalls to working horses, and the interplay between equines and people, to creating weight, recovering from accidents and the cost construction a jockey receives.
“As a jockey, you’ve gotten a dance accomplice. You’re solely pretty much as good as your dance accomplice in quite a lot of respects,” stated Migliore. “I’ve by no means seen a jockey get off and carry the horse. For me, it was crucial to know a horse’s persona, their psyche, their strengths, their weaknesses. Some riders perhaps rely extra on their physicality, as a result of being a jockey – although it’s exhausting for individuals to narrate to a smaller-than-average individual as a premier athlete – you’re a premier athlete.”
Taylor, president of Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., was glad to be a visitor as a result of “the thoroughbred horse world is Freakonomics. It’s very unstable. There’s not many industries or economies that it’s a residing, respiratory creature.” Taylor emphasised the significance of Lexington, Kentucky because the nerve heart of the trade, referring to Keeneland gross sales, {the marketplace} and the important premise that the very best stallions are in Kentucky. And that Kentucky soil and climate made it the very best place to breed and lift Thoroughbreds.
The successful entry might be discovered right here.
Honorable point out within the Multimedia class went to Katie Petrunyak of Thoroughbred Day by day Information for Breeders’ Cup Breakthrough: For Kevin Attard, “Moira’s Win Extra Than a Milestone,” on Aug. 8, 2025, and to Christina Bossinakis, additionally for Thoroughbred Day by day Information, for “Tenacious Emma-Jayne Wilson Poised for Subsequent Comeback” on Aug. 27, 2025.
Judges within the Multimedia class have been John Engelhardt, 35 years as a producer in TV/radio/podcasts, and present host of The Common Man on winningponies.com; Julie Sarno, freelance author, a former editorial workers member of BloodHorse, workers member at The Meadowlands, workers member and Division Head at Del Mar; and Joe Withee, Director of Broadcast Publicity, Emerald Downs.
