The $10,000 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award celebrates its 19th anniversary in 2024. Inaugurated in 2006 by the late philanthropist and global executive Dr. Ryan, and sponsored by the Ryan family’s Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington, Ky., the competition has traditionally honored the best writing related to the Thoroughbred industry published in 2023.
As always, the award, which is open to all genres, drew a strong and eclectic field of entrants. Among the submissions were biographies, histories, works of fiction, a book of poetry, a photo essay, and young adult volumes. The six semifinalists synopsized below emerged from an exceptional group of authors that included three past winners of this competition, an 11-time Sovereign Award winner, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a celebrated writer/photographer, a noted college history professor, a Kentucky Derby-winning jockey, and a former criminal defense lawyer. For the first time, and reflecting the overall quality of this year’s competition, the judges also chose to launch an Honorable Mention category.
Three finalists will be revealed this summer, with the winner to be announced during a reception at Castleton Lyons later in the year.
The semifinalists are (in alphabetical order, by author name):
Dream Derby: The Myth and Legend of Black Gold
Author: Avalyn Hunter
In Dream Derby, Hunter peels back the veil of long-ago history in telling the unlikely story of centennial Kentucky Derby winner Black Gold. The ill-fated colt’s life was one of dreams and prophesies foretold, supreme victory and heart-breaking loss. A small colt with an outsized heart, Black Gold was bred and raced by Rosa Hoots, a member of the oil-rich Osage Nation. This was at the height of the 1920s reign of terror when numerous members of her tribe were murdered for their wealth, but fortunately Hoots’s family was not among those and her fortune was not under guardianship. Story has it that years earlier on her husband’s deathbed, he had predicted that his hard-raced mare Useeit would one day produce a Kentucky Derby winner. Mrs. Hoots brought his dream to fruition in 1924, with the black colt she named for the oil beneath the Oklahoma soil.
False Riches
Author: John Paul Miller
A compelling piece of racing fiction, False Riches is a mystery and a love story set largely at a fictional Texas racetrack. It depicts the dark side of horse racing, including doping and race-fixing, as well as the physical dangers inherent in the sport. The book’s protagonists are an assistant trainer/rider who is an ardent advocate for safety measures to protect both horse and rider, and a private investigator busy tracking crimes in the racing industry. False Riches is hard-hitting, but it also offers hope—that after all, our sport has a future worth following.
Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey
Author: Katherine C. Mooney
An accomplished racing historian herein tells the story of a legendary Black jockey born during slavery, who enroute to glory as a rider, dealt with virulent racism and ever-worsening health issues. Isaac Murphy won three Kentucky Derbys and compiled an unmatchable 44% win-rate before his untimely passing at 35. Nearly 60 years later, in 1955, he became the first jockey inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. Despite his diminutive size, Murphy was a larger-than-life character, known for integrity and scrupulous honesty—at a time when corruption flourished in racing—as well as an almost surreal skill in the saddle. Arguably racing’s first superstar, he remains revered even today as one of the best jockeys of all time.
The Jockey and Her Horse
Authors: Sarah Maslin Nir and Raymond White Jr.
This young adult work of historical fiction was inspired by the very real life of the late Cheryl White, a jockey who blazed trails on the racetrack in the 1970s on behalf of women and African-Americans. White was fearless, gutsy, and gifted. Against all odds, as a 17-year-old high school student, she burst on the racing scene like a bolt of lightning, becoming the first Black female rider to win a North American Thoroughbred race. A barrier-breaking pioneer, Cheryl’s story was nevertheless erased from history. In writing The Jockey and Her Horse, New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-finalist Sarah Maslin Nir joined forces to tell her important story once again with someone who knew White well—her brother, Raymond White Jr.
The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty
Author: Curtis Stock
Those who have followed racing for a while will likely recall Ron Turcotte as the jockey who guided Secretariat to his electrifying 1973 Triple Crown sweep, and who later was permanently paralyzed in a racing accident. What they may not know is that Turcotte led a family of accomplished jockeys, all with stories to tell, and that the five race-riding brothers together won more than 8,200 races. Curtis Stock—an 11-time Sovereign Award winner for writing—penned and researched this tale of one of the sport’s biggest dynasties. It is a biography and oral history, largely based on decades of interviews, and it illustrates how often triumph and tragedy go hand-in-hand in the world of racing.
Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America’s Legendary Racehorse
Author: Kim Wickens
This skillfully researched work tells the story of one of America’s greatest, most influential Thoroughbreds. In portraying the life of mid-19th century champion Lexington, Kim Wickens shows just what racing meant to America during the pre-Civil War era … how epic races and heroic racehorses dominated the scene, drawing massive crowds to tracks. In the 1850s, Lexington was the biggest crowd pleaser of all, a charismatic colt of record-breaking speed and untold stamina, whose Hall of Fame career Wickens traces, along with the colorful cast of human characters around him. After encroaching blindness took him off the track, Lexington entered stud in Kentucky, where he endured the dangers of the Civil War before becoming a 16-time leading American sire. Even 160 years later, he can still be found in the far reaches of the pedigrees of countless top racehorses.
Three books were recognized in the first Honorable Mention category of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. The titles chosen for that distinction are: Secretariat’s Legacy: The Sons, Daughters, and Descendants Who Keep His Legend Alive, by Patricia McQueen; Mare’s Nest, by Holly Mitchell; and Unnatural Ability: The History of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Thoroughbred Racing, by Milton C. Toby, a former winner of the Book Award who passed away in July 2023.
For further information, contact Kerrie Cahill at kcahill@castletonlyons.com
