Team Valor principal institutes Bergstein writing award

Barry Irwin, the former racing writer who is the principal of the racing syndicate Team Valor International, has instituted a writing award named after the late harness racing giant Stanley Bergstein that includes a $25,000 payment to the recipient, Irwin announced on Tuesday.

Irwin will hand-pick the winner from a list of finalists determined by a five-person panel established by Team Valor’s media director, the former Thoroughbred Times reporter Jeff Lowe. The award will recognize “the type of writing” practiced by Bergstein, whose columns for harness racing publications and the Daily Racing Form frequently focused on medication and integrity issues.

“It is important to lend support to those writers still plying their trade, by establishing a path for them to take on the important issues facing the sport, in hopes that by doing so they will move racing’s participants to effect positive changes,” said Irwin in a release.