Good day fellow NTWAB members. I hope this note finds you well, healthy, safe and wading through a summer like no other. NTWAB officers and board met last week to discuss several things in advance of next month’s Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup down the road.

• The NTWAB’s Kentucky Derby meeting will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, August 31 via Zoom (or another similar method). This is the official notice of the meeting, which will include elections for the four NTWAB Officer positions (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer) and three expiring NTWAB Director positions (Nicole Russo, Frank Angst and Jay Privman). Please send along any suggestions for Officer and/or Director positions to NTWAB Secretary Jessie Oswald (jboswald68@gmail.com) before Monday, August 10. Expect another email in mid-August that will include an election ballot and suggested bylaw changes to be voted on. Suggested changes will be sent in the next day or two. Please review in advance of the start of the voting period, which will be Aug.17-31. Per the NTWAB bylaws we are able to conduct voting via email.

• We regret to announce that NTWAB will not give out awards or conduct the Annual Awards Dinner in 2020. Plans are in the works however for the NTWAB to provide and announce a significant donation to a local, regional or national charity in the spirit of the Awards Dinner. If you have a charity in mind, please send that along to Jessie and/or NTWAB President Tom Law (tom@thisishorseracing.com). We hope to return in 2021.

• Kentucky Derby: I’ve been involved in discussions with Churchill Downs regarding coverage of this year’s Kentucky Derby. Things are looking like a significantly reduced number of credentials granted to local and national media outlets and, like NYRA did for the Belmont Stakes and Saratoga, issues on an invitation-only basis. Media credentials will not allow for barn area access, but Churchill Downs will issue that access to pool reporters determined by the NTWAB. We’ve started the process in determining who the pool reporters might be and what they’d be doing on a daily basis leading up to and including the Oaks and Derby. The NTWAB is also working with Churchill to encourage them to conduct daily press briefings with key race participants either in person at a safe social distance, via Zoom or by teleconference. We’re also working with them to determine the best way to handle post-race press conferences with winners and other participants.

• Given the short turnaround between the NTWAB Derby and Breeders’ Cup meetings, we will postpone evaluation of new member applications until the latter.

• Tom Law and Greg Hall, the NTWAB’s representatives on the Eclipse Award Steering Committee, agreed with the other members of that group to mail the physical championship trophy to the connections of Maximum Security. Given the ongoing legal issues with the horse’s former trainer, the Steering Committee left open the option to revisit the situation later, i.e., if Maximum Security were to be disqualified from any of his victories in 2019.

Thank you for your time and consideration of these matters. Be well and stay safe.

Tom Law
NTWAB President
August 3, 2020

NTWAB officers and board met last week to discuss several things in advance of next month's Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup down the road.