DRF's Privman honored with Joe Hirsch Award

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jay Privman, the longtime national correspondent for Daily Racing Form, was honored with the Joe Hirsch Award for Outstanding News Reporting at the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters annual awards dinner Wednesday night at the Derby Restaurant.

Privman earned the award for his deadline story focusing on John Sadler breaking his lengthy Breeders’ Cup drought by winning the Classic last year at Churchill Downs with Accelerate. Privman has enjoyed a distinguished 38-year career as a writer, author, and broadcaster, having been employed by multiple media outlets in addition to working for DRF since 1998. He has attended every Breeders’ Cup since the event was inaugurated in 1984.

The other writing award related to the 2018 Breeders’ Cup, the Bill Leggett Award for Outstanding Feature Writing, was presented to the Los Angeles Times’s John Cherwa, whose story also focused on Sadler.

These were the other honorees at the dinner:

◗ The late trainer Rick Violette, the Joe Palmer Award for meritorious service to racing.

◗ Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the Mr. Fitz Award for typifying the spirit of racing.

◗ Caton Bredar of TVG, the Jim McKay Award for career excellence in broadcasting.

◗ Tim Wilkin of the Albany Times Union, the Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf writing.

◗ Retired jockey Joy Scott, the Bill Mooney Award for displaying courage in the face of tremendous adversity.