Writer to be Honored at Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico Thursday, May 14

BALTIMORE, MD., 04/16/15 --- The Maryland Jockey Club announced today that Joe Clancy, an Eclipse Award-winning writer and editor of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine, will receive the David F. Woods Memorial Award for excellence in journalism at the May 14 Alibi Breakfast in the Terrace Dining Room at Pimlico Race Course.

Clancy will be recognized for "Horse of a Lifetime," a news account of the 2014 Preakness Stakes won by California Chrome. Earlier this year Clancy's "Horse of a Lifetime" won the 2014 Media Eclipse Award for Writing in the News/Enterprise category. The story appeared in the July edition of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine.

The David F. Woods Memorial Award was initiated in 1982 to honor the memory of Dave Woods, a long-time racetrack publicist and Evening Sun columnist. The award is presented annually by the Maryland Jockey Club and Pimlico to the writer of the best Preakness story for the previous year. Clancy's brother, Sean, was recipient of the David F. Woods Memorial Award in 2014.

"It's an honor to win the David Woods Award and to be recognized for my work," Clancy said. "The California Chrome story was a great one to tell and really couldn't have been told so well without the cooperation of trainer Art Sherman and the whole team. They were gracious, welcoming and open. They wanted to share their good fortune and it made for a great story. I just had to tell it right."

"No article happens without a lot of help, so I thank my brother Sean and Tom Law for the editing help, everyone at the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred office and the atmosphere created by the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico every year for helping make that article become a reality."

Clancy grew up around horses; working as a groom, exercise rider, hot walker and assistant trainer to his father Joseph, a mid-Atlantic based trainer of flat and steeplechase horses who saddled Fourmatt to victory in the 1984 Federico Tesio.

Clancy, who has also been published in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore Sun, is also a publisher, editor and owner of ST Publishing Inc., parent company of thisishorseracing.com and The Saratoga Special. Clancy lives in Fair Hill, Maryland with his wife, Sam, sons Ryan, Jack and Nolan, and their dog Katie.