{"id":63023,"date":"2025-08-13T02:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63023\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T02:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:20:24","slug":"finalists-announced-for-the-dr-tony-ryan-book-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63023\/","title":{"rendered":"Finalists Announced For The Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finalists Announced For The Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A panel of judges has selected three finalists for the 19th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, each representing excellence in thoroughbred sports literature published in 2024. The three authors — Arthur B. Hancock III, John Perrotta, and Josh Pons — all have extensive backgrounds in the thoroughbred racing industry, in addition to demonstrated skill as writers. Two of the titles, Hancock\u2019s \u201cDark Horses: A Memoir of Redemption\u201d and Pons\u2019 \u201cLetters From Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o\u2019 War, and the Founding of Maryland\u2019s Oldest Thoroughbred Farm,\u201d are biographies steeped in their families\u2019 thoroughbred history. Perrotta, a lifelong horseman who has been a racetrack and stable manager, jockey agent, and radio executive, joins the group with \u201cA Beggar\u2019s Ride,\u201d a mystery\/thriller tale that spans racetracks from California to Ireland, the author\u2019s current home.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese finalists have much in common: men who have devoted their lives to thoroughbred racing but also have nurtured their creative sides,\u201d said book award judge Kay Coyte. \u201cThey did so not only through these books but also through journalism, songwriting, or screenwriting. Oh, the stories they can tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Semifinalists also included \u201cThe History of the Kentucky Derby in 75 Objects,\u201d by Kentucky Derby Museum and Jessica K. Whitehead; \u201cJockey Queen: Lillian Jenkinson Holder, Horse Racing\u2019s Fearless Lady,\u201d by Roger Peach; and \u201cWhat Horses Do After Racing: The Story of Good Carma,\u201d by Jay Privman.<\/p>\n

These titles were among nearly 20 submissions that illustrated the scope of the Book Award, including children\u2019s books, history, romance, and, for the first time, horror (set in 19th-century Saratoga). With a $10,000 winner\u2019s prize, this competition has for nearly two decades ranked among the most lucrative in publishing. The late businessman\/philanthropist Dr. Tony Ryan launched it in 2006 as the Castleton Lyons\/Thoroughbred Times award, to recognize a long-overlooked segment of race-writing: the book. After Dr. Ryan\u2019s passing a year later, his son Shane carried on, while changing the name of the award to honor his late father.<\/p>\n

The winner\u2019s ceremony will be held in the loft above the historic stallion barn at the Ryan family\u2019s Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington, Ky., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. In addition to the $10,000 winner\u2019s check, the Book Award will present $1,000 to the other two finalists; all will receive Tipperary crystal trophies.<\/p>\n

The 2024 judging team included Coyte, an Eclipse Award-winning former Washington Post editor; Caton Bredar, an Eclipse-winning television on-air host and handicapper; Kim Wickens, winner of the 2023 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for \u201cLexington,\u201d and former Boston Globe columnist Diane White, a director of the Old Friends thoroughbred retirement farm.<\/p>\n

Following is a synopsis of the finalists published during the 2024 calendar year, listed alphabetically by title.<\/p>\n

A Beggar\u2019s Ride by John Perrotta<\/p>\n

Author Perrotta\u2019s latest mystery is a sequel to his 2015 novel If Wishes Were Horses, in which he introduced runaway teenager and New York backstretch worker Hamilton Greer. In A Beggar\u2019s Ride, Greer is ten years older and still learning the hard lessons of life. The nomadic young man eventually lands in Europe, where he finds love and adventure both on and off the racetrack\u2014not all of it good. Along the way, Greer becomes unwittingly involved with a shady group of characters, including smugglers, killers, and drug dealers, which makes for a rollicking, albeit dangerous, romp to the dark side.<\/p>\n

Dark Horses: A Memoir of Redemption by Arthur B. Hancock III<\/p>\n

Dark Horses is the story of a pre-eminent racing family, a legendary Thoroughbred farm, a personal and profound fall from grace, and, ultimately, a triumphant redemption\u2014one that propelled Arthur B. Hancock III to the heights of the Thoroughbred industry. It is told from the heart and with sometimes painful vulnerability by the man himself, who seems to hold nothing back as he chronicles his wild-child youth filled with boozing, fighting, and debt, to the point where he walked away from his family\u2019s historic Claiborne Farm and rebuilt his life on his own terms. Eventually, Hancock would establish his own very successful Thoroughbred operation at Stone Farm and become the first of his family to be the breeder and owner of a Kentucky Derby winner. Throughout the memoir, Hancock bares his soul in the country music lyrics he penned, a passion that continues today.<\/p>\n

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Letters From Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o\u2019 War, and the Founding of Maryland\u2019s Oldest Thoroughbred Farm by Josh Pons<\/p>\n

Josh Pons is a two-time Eclipse Award-winning writer, third-generation horseman, and co-owner of Maryland\u2019s famed Country Life Farm. In 2016, he uncovered a treasure trove of letters in the century-old farmhouse basement\u2014trunks packed with correspondence to his grandfather Adolphe Pons. Those letters provided a rare glimpse into the life of a special man, told by voices from the deep past. The elder Pons, who founded Country Life during the Great Depression, had served as personal secretary to August Belmont II, and had a hand in the breeding and eventual sale of a yearling named Man o\u2019 War\u2014among many other contributions to the sport. Who wouldn\u2019t want a peek inside the letters that came his way? Even better, the author shares his own erudite thoughts on the wisdom and joy gleaned in discovering this long-ago family history.<\/p>\n

For additional information, contact Kerri Cahill at kcahill@castletonlyons.com<\/a><\/p>\n

About Castleton Lyons<\/p>\n

Castleton Lyons is a full-service thoroughbred facility located on historic property near Lexington in the heart of Blue Grass country. This limestone rich acreage, once owned by 18th century statesman John Breckinridge and later by Wall Street financier James R. Keene, has produced some of America\u2019s most notable racehorses\u2014from Racing Hall of Fame champions Domino, Commando, and Colin to present-day Eclipse Award-winning Ryan family homebred Gio Ponti, plus multiple other stakes-winning colts and fillies over the last two decades.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Aug 12, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finalists Announced For The Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award originally appeared on Paulick Report. A panel of judges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[33530,33528,33534,33532,33535,33529,16199,33536,3004,101,33533,11193,33531,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-63023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-adolphe-pons","9":"tag-arthur-b-hancock-iii","10":"tag-book-award","11":"tag-castleton-lyons","12":"tag-dark-horses","13":"tag-josh-pons","14":"tag-kentucky-derby","15":"tag-perrotta","16":"tag-racing","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-thoroughbred-farm","19":"tag-thoroughbred-racing","20":"tag-tony-ryan","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}