In 2011, Team Valor and Barry Irwin instituted the Stanley Bergstein Writing Award, in honour of turf writer Stanley Bergstein, who passed away earlier that same year.
Background
In establishing the award, Barry Irwin, Team Valor founder and CEO, said about Stan Bergstein: “Most leaders in his field are not inclined to write about things considered to be politically incorrect because they have been part of The Establishment for far too long. But Stan was cut from a different cloth and he had the courage of his convictions. I had the privilege of knowing the late Stan Bergstein since 1988 and spoke at many of his annual Harness Tracks of America conferences. Over the years, I got to know him personally and came to admire his intellect, integrity, and humanity. He would not tell you, unless you asked, that he graduated from Northwestern University, was in the D-Day invasion, and managed the Harlem Globetrotters in a Jim Crow era in which a Jewish man traveling with a black basketball team were not welcome in some quarters. I last saw Stan at a convention in Las Vegas about 2009, communicated with him about two weeks before he died, and still miss chatting with him.
“There was a time in the 1990s when I felt singularly alone in tackling some of the sport’s most daunting issues. When Mr. Bergstein began to write his columns for Daily Racing Form and Andy Beyer wrote similarly in the Washington Post, I was relieved and I greatly appreciated their content. In the current climate of a drastically shrinking amount of space devoted to coverage of racing in the print media, I think it is important to lend support to those writers still plying their trade, by establishing a path for them to take on the important issues facing the sport, in hopes that by doing so they will move racing’s participants to effect positive changes. Not all writers and publications seem interested in this sort of thing. Now that Mr. Bergstein has departed the scene, I want to do something to encourage turf writers to pick up where he left off and establish a trend. Hopefully, the Stanley Bergstein Writing Award will encourage turf writers to branch out and take a different look at what is going on in racing that requires some attention in the press.”
“My wife Kathleen M. Irwin, who is an award-winning fiction writer, says ‘There are two ways to deal with uncomfortable things. One is to sweep them under the carpet and hope nobody notices. The other way is to shine a light on them in hopes that it will better the situation.’ I think that pretty much sums up why we are offering this writing prize,” commented Irwin.
“Stan made a difference when he wrote, because he not only got people to think, he got them to act. He pointed out problems, but he offered solutions. The press has a role in our society that should be taken seriously. It isn’t called the Fourth Estate for nothing!”
History
The accolade was first awarded in 2012 and went to to a team of New York Times writers that examined the role medications have played in racetrack injuries and the responsibility that racetrack veterinarians have in administering those drugs. The article was Racing Economics Collide With Veterinarians’ Oath. Because the New York Times editorial policy prevented writers Joe Drape, Walt Bogdanich, and Rebecca Ruiz from accepting the prize, Team Valor donated the money to the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, a non-profit organization with both scientific and educational purposes, governed by a board of directors consisting of 25 racing industry stakeholder groups.
In 2013, the award went to Ray Paulick of the Paulick Report for his article on Florida trainer Jane Cibelli titled FLORIDA INVESTIGATION: Vet Said Cibelli Told Him ‘Keep Me Out Of It’
It was announced on 2 July 2014 that Bill Finley’s TDN piece on the financial impact of drugs in racing (Drugs = Fewer Starts = Less Money for the Owner) has been included as a nominee for the 2014 Stan Bergstein Writing Award.
For the 2014 award, Team Valor has previously nominated stories from Frank Angst in the Blood-Horse on drug compounders, Joe Drape in the New York Times on a rash of drug issues across the U.S.; and Ed Donnelly on jockeys’ use of illegal electrical devices.
Team Valor encourages writers and editors to submit their stories for consideration for the award to Jeff Lowe at [email protected] by 1 November 2014.
