Jerardi, Moran, Hervey to be inducted into National Museum of Racing's Media Honor Roll

The racing journalists Dick Jerardi, Paul Moran, and John L. Hervey have been selected for induction into the National Museum of Racing’s Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor, the museum announced on Tuesday.

The trio will join 32 others who have been selected for induction into the Roll of Honor since its establishment in 2010. Jerardi remains active in covering the sport 50 years after his career began. Moran died in 2013 after 40 years of providing racing coverage for a variety of publications, though he was most recognized for his work at Newsday on Long Island.

Hervey died in 1947 after more than 50 years covering both Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing.

Jerardi, who is based in Philadelphia, has won an Eclipse Award, five Red Smith Awards for coverage of the Kentucky Derby, and three Joe Hirsch Awards for coverage of the Breeders’ Cup. He won the Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf writing in 2007.

In addition to his writing, Jerardi continues to host a weekly television show about racing and is a charter member of the Beyer Speed Figure team. He wrote a weekly column for 20 years for Daily Racing Form.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

Moran, a native of Buffalo, got his start at papers in upstate New York. He worked at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel from 1975 to 1985 before landing at Newsday, where he was the paper’s highly respected turf writer until 2008. He won two Eclipse Awards and a Red Smith Award.

An obituary in the New York Times after his death from cancer in 2013 called Moran “the last true turf writer, whose written words and outsized personality belonged on the same page and in the same press box as Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon, Joe Palmer and Red Smith.” Runyon, Palmer, and Smith are all members of the Media Roll of Honor.

Hervey, a native of Ohio, came from a racing family and began his writing career at the age of 16. He was named editor of The Trotting Horse in 1892 at the age of 22 and provided racing coverage for the Chicago Tribune and Daily Racing Form in his early years. Over the following decades, he would provide articles for every major racing publication on the planet, earning the title “the dean of American turf journalists.”

Hervey was the author of three volumes of “Racing in America,” commissioned by The Jockey Club. He also wrote “The American Trotter,” which was called the “most comprehensive history of the standardbred ever published” by The California Thoroughbred in 1947, the year of Hervey’s death. Journalism awards for harness racing coverage are named after Hervey.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.