Entries taken for Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award; deadline is Dec. 31

Entries are being taken for the eighth annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, a competition recognizing excellence in writing in the Thoroughbred industry, and the deadline for submissions is Dec. 31, 2013. The award, which comes with a $10,000 winner’s prize and a Tipperary crystal trophy, is named for the late Dr. Tony Ryan, former owner of Castleton Lyons in Lexington, Ky., who launched the competition in 2006.

Qualifying entries must have been published during the 2013 calendar year, and may represent any genre as long as the subject matter is related to some aspect of horse racing. A copy of the nomination form is available on Castleton Lyons’s website.

Finalists for the eighth annual award will be announced in March, and the winner will be named at an awards ceremony during April held at Castleton Lyons. In addition to the winner’s prize, two runners-up will each receive crystal trophies and $1,000.

“We have had seven excellent Book Award winners to date and I have no doubt that 2013 will once again prove to be a year of outstanding quality in equine literature,” said Shane Ryan, son of Dr. Tony Ryan and current 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 the award.”

Previous winners, finalists and semi-finalists in the competition include mystery author Dick Francis, 2010 National Book Award recipient Jaimy Gordon, and Eclipse Award-winning turf writers William Nack, Joe Drape, Maryjean Wall, and Bill Mooney.

Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing, by Patrick Smithwick, received the 2012 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award.