Sean Clancy among Eclipse media winners

Sean Clancy, the co-founder of The Saratoga Special and a writer for the publication, will receive his second consecutive Eclipse Award for News/Enterprise Writing, and third overall, for an article recapping the 2024 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, the administrator of the Eclipse Awards announced on Wednesday.

Clancy was one of six media Eclipse Award winners announced Wednesday, in the categories of Feature/Commentary Writing, won by Chris McGrath; Live Racing Programming and Television Features, both won by NBC Sports; Photography, won by Scott Serio; and Multimedia, won by Thoroughbred Daily News, for a feature produce by Sue Finley.

The 2024 Travers Stakes was won by Fierceness after desperately holding off a hard-charging Thorpedo Anna at the wire. Clancy, who won last year for an article recounting the tragic fatal injury to Maple Leaf Mel in last year’s Test Stakes at Saratoga, focused on the dramatic, uplifting stories behind Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna. The article was titled “Two for the Show.”

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McGrath, a native of Oxford, England, won his first Eclipse Award for an article that appeared in March in the Thoroughbred Daily News that recounted a lunchtime gathering in Paris, Ky., among racing stalwarts Arthur Hancock III, broadcaster Ercel Ellis, and veterinarian Dr. Robert Copelan. The article was titled “Lunching with Legends at Lil’s.”

NBC Sports was named to its fifth consecutive Eclipse for Live Racing Programming for its coverage of the 2024 Kentucky Derby, the 150th running of the race. The massive production – which is perennially one of the highest-rated sports broadcasts on TV – was led by Lindsay Schanzer, executive producer, and Billy Matthews, producer, and was directed by Kaare Numme and Tim Nelson.

NBC Sports won the Eclipse for Television Features with a piece produced by Rachel Goodman that appeared during the Derby broadcast focusing on the trainer Larry Demeritte, the trainer of Derby entrant West Saratoga. Demeritte, raised in the Bahamas and the third Black trainer to have a horse in the race, was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1996, and was receiving monthly treatments for the disease in the lead-up to last year’s Derby.

Scott Serio won his second Eclipse Award for Photography for an inner-rail shot he triggered remotely for the finish of the 2024 Charles Town Classic, won by Skippylongstocking. Incredibly, Serio was stung five times in the left arm in the lead-up to the race after disturbing a beehive while installing his remotes, left mid-card to receive injections at the hospital to treat the wounds, and then returned in time to shoot the finish for the night-time Classic. The photo appeared in Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine.

The Multimedia Award went to Thoroughbred Daily News for a lengthy piece produced by Finley recounting the breeder John Stewart’s efforts to acquire two horses from a kill pen in Louisiana. The piece explored the issue of horse slaughter, rescue efforts, and the responsibilities faced by individual owners and breeders for the horses they have bred or raced. The piece was titled “Saving Two Horses from a Kill Pen, Stewart Aims to Do More to End Slaughter,” and it was posted on the TDN site in July of last year.

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