Entries being taken for 2012 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award

Castleton Lyons will again sponsor the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, a competition recognizing excellence in writing in the Thoroughbred industry, and entries are now being taken for the seventh annual award. The award, which comes with a $10,000 winner’s prize and a Tipperary Crystal trophy, is named for the late Castleton Lyons owner Dr. Tony Ryan, whose twin passions for great writing and quality horse racing led to his launch of the competition in 2006. The award had been co-sponsored with Thoroughbred Times since its inception through last year.

“We have had six excellent book award winners to date, and I have no doubt that 2012 will once again prove to be a year of outstanding quality in equine literature,” said Shane Ryan, president of Castleton Lyons. “Our sponsorship of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award gives me great pleasure as it is a wonderful forum to promote and reward equine writing as my father intended when he founded this award in 2006.”

Qualifying entries must have been published during the 2012 calendar year and may represent any genre, including history, human or equine biography, investigative reporting, hands-on/how-to, photo essay, and fiction, so long as it is related to some aspect of horse racing. A copy of the nomination form is available on the Castleton Lyons website.

Deadline for submissions is Jan. 15. Finalists will be announced in March, and the winner will be named at an April awards ceremony held in a picturesque loft above Castleton Lyons’ stallion barn. In addition to the $10,000 winner’s check, two runners-up will each receive crystal trophies and $1,000.

Past winners, finalists, and semi-finalists in the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award competition have included best-selling mystery author Dick Francis, 2010 National Book Award recipient Jaimy Gordon, and multiple Eclipse Award honorees William Nack, Joe Drape, Bill Mooney, and Maryjean Wall.

Previous winners of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award:
2011 – Milt Toby, “Dancer’s Image: The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby”
2010 – Jaimy Gordon, “Lord of Misrule”
2009 – James E. “Ted” Bassett and Bill Mooney, “Keeneland’s Ted Bassett: My Life”
2008 – Rudy Alvarado, “The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita”
2007 – T.D. Thornton, “Not By a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track”
2006 – Joe Drape, “Black Maestro”

For more information, contact Stuart Fitzgibbon at Castleton Lyons, (859) 455-9222 or sfitzgibbon@castletonlyons.com