Tony Ryan Book Award

Arthur B. Hancock III, John Perrotta, and Josh Pons have been named finalists for the 19th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, which celebrates excellence in Thoroughbred sports literature. Two of the titles, Hancock's "Dark Horses: A Memoir of Redemption" and Pons's "Letters From Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm" are biographies steeped in the family Thoroughbred history of each author. Perrotta, a lifelong horseman who has been a racetrack and stable manager, jockey agent and radio executive, joins the group...

Award-winning author and attorney Milton Toby passed away Monday at his Georgetown, Kentucky home following a battle with cancer. He was 73. News of Toby's passing was first reported by Blood-Horse, where he worked for over a decade before beginning a freelance writing career. Toby began his sports writing career at the Aiken Standard and his first assignment for the South Carolina newspaper involved covering the 1972 GI Belmont S. He returned to Kentucky in 1973 and began a 12-year stint writing for the BloodHorse magazine. As a freelance photojournalist,...