Castleton Lyons

Edited Press Release Veteran turf writer Mark Shrager has won the 15th Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, presented by Castleton Lyons, for Diane Crump, A Horse-Racing Pioneer's Life in the Saddle. The winner was announced on May 10 via Zoom conference for the second straight year due to pandemic concerns. Shrager, a previous Book Award finalist for The Great Sweepstakes of 1877, took top honors for his biography of Crump, who represented the face of hope for aspiring young women in the Sport of Kings in the late 1960s. She...

For all the round-the-clock pedigree scrutiny and conformation analysis that goes into finding a stallion that will produce a winner on the first Saturday in May, it took a horse standing for $5,000 and lacking that coveted Grade I win on their race record to get the job done. Of the 26 fifth-year stallions standing in Kentucky today, Protonico was one of five to breed less than 20 mares last year. And yet, here he is now sitting atop the Leading Second-Crop Sires list after his son Medina Spirit charged...

A trio of finalists have been announced for the 15th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. The three finalists are Diane Crump, A Horse-Racing Pioneer's Life in the Saddle, by Mark Sharger; Good Things Come, by Linda Shantz; and Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop, Had a Way With Horses, by Vicki Moon. "This was the year of debut authors, including the fiction finalist [Vicki Moon]," said judge Kay Coyte, a former Washington Post and racing publications editor. "Part of the mission of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award is to encourage new...

For the first time in its 14-year history, the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award has gone to a multi-collaborative effort. The winner for works published in 2019 is "Better Lucky Than Good: Tall Tales and Straight Talk from the Backside of the Track," published through the Louisville Story Program and edited by Joe Manning.    The book features perspectives and pieces from a diverse cast of racetrackers based at Churchill Downs including exercise riders, grooms, assistant trainers, hotwalkers, outriders, security guards, silks makers and touts. "'Better Lucky Than Good' is a...

Stuart Fitzgibbon, formerly with Castleton Lyons in Central Kentucky, has been appointed director of sales and client development for the new U.S. division of Open Nutrition. The horse supplement company specializes in all-natural amino acid-based products and has products ranging from joint supplements to performance and recovery supplements, as well as others. Open Nutrition founder Julian Norrish initially developed the supplements in Australia and the United Arab Emirates. "When I met Julian it was clearly evident through his enthusiasm, knowledge, and expertise of amino acids science that Open Nutrition's products...

Panelists have selected three finalists for the 14th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, which will honor titles published in 2019. The three books include "Better Lucky Than Good: Tall Tales and Straight Talk from the Backside of the Track," by various authors, from Louisville Story Program, edited by Joe Manning; "Justify: 111 Days to Triple Crown Glory," by Lenny Shulman; and "The Triumph of Henry Cecil: The Authorised Biography," by Tony Rushmer. A total of 15 submissions were made this year before being narrowed down to the top three...

A total of six semi-finalists, from 15 submissions, for the 2020 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award have been selected by a panel of racing industry and literary judges. The semi-finalists are: Better Lucky Than Good: Tall Tales and Straight Talk from the Backside of the Track, by Louisville Story Program Justify: 111 Days to Triple Crown Glory, by Lenny Shulman The Key to the Quarter Pole, by Robin Traywick Williams Spectacular Bid: The Last Superhorse of the Twentieth Century, by Peter Lee The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga's Greatest Race,...

Entries have been announced for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, which honors long-form pieces on horse racing and offers $10,000 in prize money. Winners have traditionally been announced each April at a reception held in the historic stallion barn at the Ryan family's Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington, Kentucky. This year will be different due to the broad reach of COVID-19; the springtime celebration honoring the winner and finalists has been postponed for now, with plans to reschedule as a possibly scaled-back event in the fall. Each of these...