This is really bad isn’t it?  I haven’t put anything in this blog for over six weeks.  I think I took such a bath with the Breeders’ Cup, I just didn’t have the enthusiasm. And today’s entry is pretty self serving.

This blog is called Down The Stretch, because I publish Down The Stretch, a freely distributed racing newspaper available at several locations at Woodbine racetrack and in many of the Champions Off-Track theatres and it gives me enormous pleasure to tell you today that Down The Stretch ( specifically me, he emphasized shyly) has been nominated for two Jockey Club of Canada Sovereign Awards.

The Jockey Club gives out it bling annually, choosing the top jockey, trainer and horses of the year and they give out trophies to the media as well. I’m nominated in the Feature Article and Newspaper Story categories.  The one I submitted in feature article is called How Many Horses Can One Man Save  and it’s about Alex Brown, a remarkable man who is dedicating much of his life to rescuing horses designated for slaughter. When I wrote about him in this blog earlier in the year, there was significant response.

 The other story in the running for me is a piece I did called Lloyd Duffy Still Bringing in Winners. Down The Stretch took former top jockey Llody Duffy to lunch at Woodbine and gave him $50 to bet on behalf of LongRun, an agency that finds homes for horses who can no longer race. Duffy hit a pair of longshots and won about $240 for the charity. It’s a pleasant, amusing story, but not necessarily a Nobel Peace Prize winner (and I have to hope none of the Sovereigm Award voters are reading this).

The Alex Brown story is one of three in the Best Feature department. The other nominees are Perry Lefko for  a story he did on the late Ted Labanowich called Remembering the King of Handicapping and Chris Lomon for a story called The Coldwater Kid’s Kind Deed.  That makes this all sort of interesting because Lefko contributes to Down The Stretch with articles, press releases and advice from his lengthy tenure in the print media, and Lomon, as an employee of Woodbine’s media office, often finds himself beseiged by me with requests for facts, standings research articles and betting vouchers.

 In the Newspaper Article department, I’m up against George Williams who wrote Ace is Tops for King for the Winnipeg Free Press and Beverley Smith who submitted Race for Life for the Globe and Mail. 

I don’t know what my chances are, but the Sovereign Awards is an impressive gathering…black tie, fancy food, snazzy looking program. Tickets are only $300 each and can be purchased through the Jockey Club of Canada.  For the thousands of you considering that, show up in appropriate attire and chant my name constantly before and after the winners are announced.