Jay Hovdey, Whitney Tower join National Museum of Racing's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor

Jay Hovdey of Daily Racing Form and the late Whitney Tower have been chosen as the National Museum of Racing’s Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor recipients for 2012. The award was instituted in 2010 in memory of Hirsch, a distinguished turf writer who had died the previous year.

Hovdey, executive columnist for Daily Racing Form, is a four-time Eclipse Award winner for writing whose work has also appeared in Reader’s Digest, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, as well as such Thoroughbred racing publications as The Blood-Horse, Thoroughbred Times, The Racing Times, and Keiba Book of Japan.

Hovdey is the author of three books on horse racing, including “Whittingham: A Thoroughbred Racing Legend” and “Cigar: America’s Horse.”

Tower spent 22 years as the turf editor of Sports Illustrated and five years in the same capacity for Classic magazine, as well as eight years as the president of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He also served as chairman at the museum for 10 years.

Hovdey and Tower join Steven Crist (2010), Bill Nack (2010) Red Smith (2010), Charles Hatton (2010), Russ Harris (2011), and Joe Palmer (2011) on the Museum’s Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor.