The National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters today announced the winners of the 2019 Media Eclipse Awards in six categories.
Joe Nevills of Georgetown won the award for Feature/Commentary Writing for his entry “Biting The Dust: A Long Goodbye to Mount Pleasant Meadows,” written for the Paulick Report on July 22.
This is the first Eclipse Award for Nevills, of Georgetown, Kentucky, who has been the bloodstock editor of the Paulick Report since 2018, and prior to that was a reporter for Daily Racing Form and the Thoroughbred Times. Nevills’ wife, Natalie Voss, won an Eclipse Award for News/Enterprise writing in 2016.
“It’s just one of those things you dream of doing, like hitting a Grand Slam to win Game 7 of the World Series,” Nevills said about winning an Eclipse Award. “This is something I’ve always wanted to accomplish and never expected, but this one was very personal for me. I had been working on this story for five years, since the track closed.”
In “Biting The Dust: A Long Goodbye to Mount Pleasant Meadows,” Nevills tells the story of the demise of a small mixed-breed track in central Michigan through the eyes of trainer Nate Funnell, jockey Lee Gates, track announcer and marketing director Scott Csernyik, and through his own personal recollections of a place where he learned and enjoyed horse racing beginning with his family at age four. He had revisited the closed grounds several times since it was shuttered, and he was able to finally complete his story this year.
“I wanted to write a John Mellencamp song about horse racing, without the music: Give a spotlight to blue-collar horse people on the small circuit that made me,” Nevills said. “I like to write things that I’d have liked to read when I was young, looking through magazines for whatever I could find about my home circuit. The entire Michigan racing community has had my back since I started writing about the sport. They’ve been instrumental in teaching me about the industry, even today.”
Opened in 1985, Mount Pleasant Meadows in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, experienced just a few good years of racing, damaged by an ever-growing list of internal and political obstacles, before closing in 2013. And yet, in describing the run-down conditions of the track he revisited several times, Nevills revealed the strength and joy of those who worked there.
“Even at its loudest, Mount Pleasant was a good place for people who liked to hear what was going on: the sound of jockeys smooching and barking to urge their mounts, then explaining themselves to the trainers afterward; the gate crew pleading with the starter to keep his thumb off the button; and the occasional trash talk between people on horseback.
This was especially true around the paddock, where horsemen and revelers shot the breeze between races over a flimsy chain-link fence. The sternly-worded sign warning folks with racing licenses against chatter with the outside world, hung by the state’s racing commission, might as well have been written in Cantonese.”
Nevills is a native of Edmore, Michigan, attended Montabella High School, and graduated from Central Michigan University.
The winning feature/commentary article can be accessed here.
Other Media Eclipse Award winners include:
Television – Live Racing Programming – TVG, “TVG Pacific Classic,” Aug. 17, 2019
Television – Features – FOX Sports 2, “When Rachel Raised the Rafters,” Aug. 30, 2019
Feature/Commentary Writing – Joe Nevills, Paulick Report “Biting The Dust: A Long Goodbye to Mount Pleasant Meadows,” July 22, 2019
News/Enterprise Writing – Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune “Anniversary of Deadly San Luis Rey Fire Strains Still,” Dec. 8, 2018
Audio/Multi-Media Internet – Horse Racing Radio Network (HRRN) “2019 Breeders’ Cup World Championships,” Nov. 2, 2019
Photography – Jim Leuenberger, DRF.com; “2019 Kentucky Derby,” May 4, 2019
Each of the Media Eclipse Award winners will be presented their trophies at 49th Annual Eclipse Awards on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
Entries were accepted for 2019 Media Eclipse Awards consideration for works which appeared from Nov. 16, 2018 to Nov. 15, 2019.
NTRA