Good morning. Thanks to those who tuned in for the NTWAB general membership meeting last week to discuss issues related to the 2023 Eclipse Awards. We had about 60 members on the teleconference meeting. In the wake of our meeting and comments made in the media about the Eclipse Awards process, NTWAB Vice President Greg Hall and I participated in an Eclipse Awards Steering Committee meeting Tuesday morning.
 

The NTWAB, along with the other members of the committee, received an apology from NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney on how the decision to present the Eclipse Award of Merit was handled and the reaction it caused.

We also received a promise that any decisions related to the special or merit Eclipse Awards would require a vote and a unanimous result to move forward. Abstentions will be accepted, but only for a direct conflict of interest. This promise follows years (decades perhaps) of unwritten tradition of the committee that any Special or Merit honors handed out would be after overwhelming approval of the Steering Committee. The longstanding unwritten process now is formalized, and this accomplishes the direction Greg and I were given by the board to get concrete assurances about process in the future.

The other area of concern has been the change in the media contest rules to allow work created by industry publicity vehicles. While no agreement was reached by the steering committee on this, everyone agreed to discuss the matter further to work toward a resolution, hopefully in time for our meeting this spring.

These issues first surfaced back in September, continued through the fall and early winter, and Greg and I would like to thank the NTWAB board members for their time spent discussing the issues. We had several board meetings, along with one that included NTWAB past presidents, who we also thank for their input. Thanks as well to anyone who shared comments after last week’s meeting. We are compiling all of those comments to share with the board for later discussion.

Long story short, we believe the NTWAB should continue its participation as a presenter of the Eclipse Awards with Daily Racing Form and the NTRA as we believe one of our major issues has now been resolved and the other will be discussed. The NTWAB has been on the steering committee since the inception in 1971, and many of our members have been recognized through the years, including writers Tim Layden and Sean Clancy just a few weeks ago.

A few other important items of business:

A spreadsheet of the 2023 first-place Eclipse Award votes of NTWAB members in good standing is attached. Publishing our votes continues a longstanding tradition of maintaining our transparency both to our members and the Thoroughbred industry. We also plan to inquire with some members who were eligible to vote and did not.

The Breeders’ Cup communications team would like some input from NTWAB members on their on-site media experience from start to finish at last year’s event at Santa Anita Park. In their words, “they’re evaluating every aspect of the entire experience and would appreciate candid feedback to take under consideration.” Please pass along any comments, feedback, etc. to me by February 18 and I’ll pass them along.

We’ll be in touch in the coming weeks ahead with details about our Derby Week meeting (traditionally either that Wednesday or Thursday). Finally, you should have already heard from Jennifer Kelly about 2024 dues. Thanks to those who have already paid. The deadline for dues payments is August 1.

Thanks for your time. Have a great rest of the week.

Tom Law
NTWAB President
February 14, 2024