Book Award

Racing journalist and horseman Josh Pons has been named the recipient of the 2024 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, presented by the Ryan family's Castleton Lyons, for excellence in thoroughbred racing literature published in 2024. He received the winner's $10,000 check during a Nov. 6 reception at the Lexington, Ky., farm. Pons won for 'Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm', a retrospective of the Golden Age of racing as viewed through a remarkable trove of correspondence to his grandfather,...

Six semifinalists for the 19th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award have been selected, by a panel of judges, representing excellence in thoroughbred sports literature published in 2024, Castleton Lyons announced Tuesday. These six titles illustrate the scope of the Book Award, including histories, biographies, a memoir, and two works of fiction. Per Castleton Lyons's release, the books "were chosen from nearly 20 submissions, an indicator that literature on horse racing remains very much alive despite thoroughbred industry controversies and the global economic hardships of recent years." Three finalists will...