My fellow National Turf Writers and Broadcasters – I’m excited to see many of you at our 64th annual NTWAB Annual Awards Dinner on Oct. 30 and in the days to follow at our Oct. 31 general membership meeting at Del Mar or during the two-day event there on Nov. 1-2.

We have a sell-out crowd of 150 attendees for our Wednesday dinner at The Brigantine as we honor Team Kenny McPeek, the Backside Learning Center, Sean Clancy and Laffit Pincay III. Thank you to our membership for your support, and those who have given their time into making this dinner a success.

The awards dinner will be just down the street from Del Mar Thoroughbred Club on the outside patio at The Brigantine Del Mar, 3263 Camino Del Mar. We’ll begin with cocktails at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30, with awards presentations to follow. The Breeders’ Cup Writing Awards will also be presented during the evening. Business/cocktail attire. Valet parking is available at The Brigantine, but due to our capacity crowd, the restaurant suggests Uber or Lyft rides to best accommodate guests.

For those not at Del Mar on Thursday, I hope you can join us for our membership meeting at 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET) via Zoom. Here is the link.

The meeting will include an update on happenings for our organization over the past year and will provide an opportunity for us to review applicants to our organization. We’ll have a follow-up from the awards dinner and also address any other items of business. The board is committed to serving the needs of our membership, and we welcome your perspective for the closing months of 2024 and as we head into 2025.

If you’d like specific issues to be added to the agenda, please let me or NTWAB Secretary Jennifer Kelly know. For those on-site, the meeting will take place in the auxiliary press box. A complete agenda will be sent next week.

Here is a rundown of beneficial media resources available for Breeders’ Cup coverage:

·        The Oct. 23 Breeders’ Cup pre-entry teleconference: https://www.breederscup.com/notes

·        Pre-entry past performances: https://www.equibase.com/content/bc/2024preentries.cfm

·        Breeders’ Cup statistics: https://stats.breederscup.com/

·        Breeders’ Cup media center: https://breederscup.com/media-center

·        Breeders’ Cup trainer bios: https://www.equibase.com/content/BC/probabletrainers.cfm

·        Breeders’ Cup owner bios: https://www.equibase.com/content/BC/probableowners.cfm

·        Breeders’ Cup jockey bios: https://www.equibase.com/content/BC/probablejockeys.cfm

·        Breeders’ Cup contender profiles: https://breederscup.com/horses/pre-entries/classic

·        Horsemen’s guide: https://members.breederscup.com/documents/championships/HIG.PDF

·        Breeders’ Cup saddle towels: https://www.breederscup.com/towels

Kind regards,

Byron King

President, NTWAB
Oct. 25, 2024