Veteran columnist Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal earned
a pair of awards and veteran journalists Jay Privman of Daily Racing Form
and Pat Forde of ESPN.com received top honors as Churchill Downs announced the
winners of its 2008 Red Smith Kentucky Derby Writing Contest. The contest
annually recognizes the best in print media coverage of America’s greatest race.
Bozich earned awards in the “Monday Wrap-Up” and “Feature” categories and has
now earned a record 11 Red Smith Awards in his 30-year career with the
Louisville newspaper. Privman was honored by his “Derby Advance” story and
raised his career total of Red Smith honors to six. Forde, honored for his
“Sunday Wrap-Up” story on ESPN.com, had previously earned a pair of Kentucky
Derby writing awards during his years with the Courier-Journal.
Each of the winners will receive an engraved sterling silver julep cup that
will be presented during the 49th annual National Turf Writers Association
Awards Dinner on Wednesday at Castle Green in Pasadena, California.
The awards are named in honor of Walter W. “Red” Smith, the
legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter and columnist who was best known
for his work with the New York Herald Tribune and New York Times.
Smith died in 1982 and Churchill Downs established the Red Smith Writing Contest
the following year.
Bozich earned his “Feature” honor, his third in that Red Smith Award
category, for “Eoin Harty’s Bred for This,” which was published on May 2. The
story was a profile of Eoin Harty, a native of Ireland and trainer of Colonel
John (Tiznow), his first starter in the “Run for the Roses.” The “Monday
Wrap-Up” award for Bozich honored a piece entitled “Eight Belles’ Death Casts
Pall on Sport,” which was published on May 5. The story, which earned Bozich is
second award in that Red Smith category, focused on the aftermath of the death
of Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up Eight Belles in the moments after the race and
its impact on trainer Larry Jones and the sport of Thoroughbred racing.
Privman earned his 2008 Red Smith “Derby Advance” award, his first in that
category, for “Big Brown: Can He Deliver?” The story, published in the May 3
edition of Daily Racing Form, looked at the prospects of unbeaten
favorite Big Brown and other major contenders in the 134th Kentucky Derby. The
award is Privman’s first Red Smith honor in the “Derby Advance” category.
Forde’s winning “Sunday Wrap-Up” story, entitled “Tragedy Takes the Gloss off
Big Brown’s Dazzling Win,” was his second in that Red Smith Kentucky Derby
Writing Contest category. The story focused on the torrent of emotions unleashed
by the emphatic victory by favored Big Brown in Derby 134 and the fatal injuries
suffered by runner-up Eight Belles shortly after the completion of the race.