Natalie Voss sweeps Eclipse Awards writing categories; NBC Sports wins both television awards

Natalie Voss, a reporter and editor-and-chief for The Paulick Report, was named the Eclipse Award winner for both categories in writing, for stories dealing with the aftercare of retired racehorses, the administrators of the awards announced on Wednesday.

Voss won the Feature/Commentary Writing Eclipse for “An Angel on His Shoulder,” and the News/Enterprise Writing Eclipse for a three-part series dealing with the past, present, and future of aftercare efforts. Voss also won an Eclipse in 2016 for News/Enterprise Writing.

“I’m so pleased to see aftercare stories win in both categories this year,” Voss said. “I really believe there are just as many compelling stories in that world as there are on the racetrack, and that they are just as much a part of the Thoroughbred industry.”

In other media Eclipse Awards announced on Wednesday, NBC Sports won both television awards, for Live Racing Programming and Features. The Live Programming Award went to the network’s coverage of this year’s Breeders’ Cup, while the Feature Award went to a program entitled “Riders Up: The World’s First Sports Bubble,” which documented the efforts by Santa Anita and its jockey colony to conduct racing safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

The feature was produced by John and Brad Hennegan, the founders of the Hennegan Brothers production company. The duo won Eclipse Awards for Feature Television in 2008 and 2015 as well.

The Audio/Multi-Media Internet Eclipse went to Thoroughbred Daily News for a feature called, “To Hell and Back: Belmont Marks a Deserved Triumph for New York City,” a tribute by writer/narrator Joe Bianca to his native New York City. Patty Wolfe was the producer on the broadcast.

The Photography Eclipse went to Alex Evers, from Hermosa Beach, Calif., for a photograph of the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby field rounding the first turn at Churchill Downs racetrack, in front of a nearly empty grandstand. The photograph appeared in The Paulick Report.