Livingston wins fifth Eclipse Award

Barbara D. Livingston, the chief photographer for Daily Racing Form, has been named the Eclipse Award winner for audio/multimedia for a tribute to the champion racehorse Man o’ War that was posted on DRF.com on March 24, the administrators of the awards announced Wednesday.

The piece, entitled “Chasing Man o’ War’s Ghost,” included Livingston’s own personal and professional photographs, mingled with those from archival sources. Livingston also wrote the text for the piece and narrated an accompanying video presentation embedded within the article, which focused on Livingston’s lifelong love and fascination with a horse born in 1917.

“For me, there is one Big Red, and he was born a hundred years ago,” Livingston wrote, in reference to Man o’ War’s nickname. “If others of the same nickname preceded him, they were simply opening acts. Anyone since? Call them Big Red all you want, but to me, they are imposters.”

The winning piece can be found at www.drf.com/ manowar.

“There is something about Man o’ War that transcends reality,” Livingston said in a press release from the administrators of the awards. “He was so high-headed, so imperious, so superior that he seems a mythical creature.”

This is the fifth Eclipse Award for Livingston and her second in the audio/multimedia category. In addition to her record three Eclipse Awards for photography, Livingston won in the audio/multimedia category last year for her contributions to a piece written by Jay Hovdey.

The administrators on Wednesday also named NBC Sports as the winner in the categories of live-racing television programming and television features. The award for live-racing television programming went to NBC’s 2017 broadcast of the Kentucky Derby on May 6 from Churchill Downs. The award for features went to “My Kentucky Home,” about renowned broadcaster Tom Hammond and his native Lexington, Ky., which ran May 3 on NBCSN.

The Derby production was coordinated by Robert Hyland and directed by Drew Esocoff. “My Kentucky Home” was written and narrated by Hammond, who was also co-producer with Dave Picker.

NBC has won the last eight Eclipse Awards for live national TV racing programming.

The awards will be presented at the Eclipse Awards ceremony Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.