Thoroughbred Daily News series nominated for Bergstein award

Thoroughbred Daily News series nominated for Bergstein

award

Team Valor International has nominated all six stories from a Thoroughbred

Daily News series on drugs in horse racing for the Stan Bergstein Writing

Award. Bill Finley, Ryan Goldberg and Lucas Marquardt each wrote installments in

the series "A Painful Truth," which began on May 2 and wrapped up on June 22.

Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin initiated the award last year following the death

of Bergstein, who relentlessly wrote about drug issues in both Thoroughbred and

Standardbred racing for decades. The first award, decided by a four-judge panel

of writers, went to an installment from another series on drugs in racing that

appeared in the New York Times.

The TDN series examined drugs in racing dating back to the early 20th century

and moved forward with a look at the present dysfunctional regulatory system

that differs drastically from state to state. The writers also compared

America's permissive drug rules to the stringent standards in place in most

other countries with horse racing and placed a spotlight on several positive

developments, including emerging laboratory technology, cooperation among some

jurisdictions and tracks incorporating private property rights to exclude

presumed bad actors.

The full series is accessible at

www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/members/magazine/. The following 6 stories

will be presented individually to the panel of judges for the second annual Stan

Bergstein Writing Award, which will carry a $25,000 prize and will be presented

at the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program's Global Symposium on

Racing and Gaming:

For the 2013 award, Team Valor previously nominated a piece from Ray Paulick

on the Paulick Report website about the absence of veterinary records in

California's mandatory post-mortem examinations for equine fatalities.

Stories may be submitted for consideration to Jeff Lowe at

jeff@teamvalor.com by November 1.

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