Horse Betting World

Lexington-based Horse Racing Radio Network wins Eclipse award

Lexington-based Horse Racing Radio Network has earned the 2010 media Eclipse Award in the audio/multi-media internet category for its 10 hours of live coverage of this year’s Breeders’ Cup races Nov. 5-6 at Churchill Downs, it was announced Thursday.

The Eclipse Awards are presented by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

“It’s overwhelming to win the Eclipse Award,” HRRN president Mike Penna said in a release. “It’s the highest honor we have in our sport. To win an Eclipse is the ultimate recognition for our broadcast team, which has devoted itself to year-round racing coverage the past six years.”

Penna is a life-long racing fan from New England and one-time assistant in horse identification at Keeneland who launched HRRN to where the network covered more than 100 top races in 2010, including the entire Kentucky Oaks card, the Derby undercard, Preakness and Belmont.

The Eclipse, the first for Penna, also serves as a testament to Pete Kules, the veteran Lexington broadcaster who died Dec. 19 at age 76. Kules and Penna joined forces in 2003 on Kules’ weekly radio show, launching HRRN in 2005.

Besides Penna, the HRRN Breeders’ Cup team included reporter Sean Clancy, analysts Jude Feld and Kurt Becker and paddock commentator Roy Steele, with Adam Frenier and John Edwards the producers.

Clancy was on the spot after the altercation began between jockeys Calvin Borel and Javier Castellano following the Breeders’ Cup Marathon on Championship Friday. Clancy also described the heart-warming tribute from thousands of fans in the grandstand cheering the champion mare Zenyatta upon her return to be unsaddled after being narrowly defeated by Blame in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“Obviously Zenyatta was the overwhelming story of this Breeders’ Cup,” Penna said. “We knew that’s why people were tuning in. Our goal for that last hour was to have listeners feel as though they were there at Churchill Downs with us.”

HRRN also is host to the weekly Equine Forum (Saturdays 8-10 a.m.), which can be heard on 96.1-FM in Lexington and with live streaming and podcast at horseracingradio.net.