Pop on over to www.equidaily.com [frontpage] for a comparison of this year's winner and the winner of -- not a decade ago, but -- just two years back...

i think they could have found something better. expecting a horse to misjudge a jump isn't really something out of the ordinary considering how often it happens in those races.

It's pretty easy to take a video and pull 1 frame out of it for a photo. I'm not saying that was what was done, I'm just saying it's easy to do. I actually liked the photo of Leparoux almost going over the handlebars.

True, but the resolution isn't usually anywhere near still photography. That said, any professional sports photographer is going to use a camera that takes shots at an extremely high rate. I have no doubt the photographer took a dozen or more shots almost identical to this one, but this was the best one from that moment. Part of his or her job is knowing which shot is the best from the hundreds taken.

I'm not an expert but this photo tells a story. By Mathea Kelley.
http://www.bloodhorse.com/images/con...sic09MK298.jpg

and the guy works for the NY Slimes

gawd awful all the way around

Didn't even realize that...go freakin figure.

At the same time, I still don't think it is as bad as the Dettori flyer dismount.

Considering some of the Eclipses that go out there, that man (Junior Hungerford) should get one himself because he single-handedly saved what was a likely tragedy live on TV.

Just for interest, here's the last 11 winners all in one place. Unfortunately, I couldn't find photos 1998 & 2000

(I'll have to make it in 3 posts due to the 4 image limit)


1998 Ryan Haynes captures the dramatic fall of Self Reliance during a race at Northlands Park in Alberta, Canada, last July. Neither the horse nor rider Peter Wong was injured in the incident.

1999 Michael J. Marten appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of Daily Racing Form.


2000 Dave Landry's photo of Strike Smartly racing through flying mud, which appeared in the 2000 Queen's Plate Souvenir issue of the Canadian Thoroughbred,

2001 - Barbara D. Livingston, The Thoroughbred Chronicle


2002 - Michael Clevenger, Louisville Courier-Journal


2003 - Frank Anderson, Thoroughbred Times

2004 - Cindy Pierson Dulay, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred


2005 - Lynn Roberts, The Blood-Horse


2006 - Matt Goins, Lexington Herald Leader


2007 - Douglas Lees, Fauquier Times Democrat

2008 Matt Goins, photograph appeared in Al-Adiyat


2009 Jeff Taylor, Winchester Star, Virginia

Thanks Echo. good stuff


p.s. like the new sig.....well, I liked the old one too.

I respectfully disagree and would argue that that's precisely what separates a good photographer from a great one. It's like the photos with gimmicks have some unfair advantage.

... and again I have to disagree... I hated that shot of Stephen's Angel. It took zero talent... anyone could have taken it. It said nothing, it provoked nothing. It was emotionless.

A moody shot of an early morning workout (I've seen tons of these, many of them very very good), somethng like this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alydar_...n/photostream/

(and for anyone who would argue I'm being a hypocrite and it is gimmicky well it's exciting anyway!)... a huge upset shot (Revidere showed me his of Interpatation beating Gio Ponti... that kinda thing), even the usual shots of a jock with an arm up in the air crossing the finish... some of them are lovely, powerful, amazing. There can be so much emotion in something that happens every day, over and over, race after race and track after track. It's never the same though, is it? The light is different, different horses and riders, backgroundss, weather... some of these every day shots are stunning.

There's beauty every damned day in this sport that we love. Excitement, intensity, amazing things... horses and jockeys who - love them or hate them - have the only job in the world where an ambulance follows them all day and there wasn't a better shot???. Exurbance, collective joy, victory, defeat, crowds, angle after angle of facial expressions and the muscles these creatures have, nostrils and tails, silks and movement and this is the best of the year?

It's sad because the photo of the year? I think it's something we should all be proud of. I think it represents us... or it could.

A 5 year old with a throwaway camera (if they still make those) could have taken this picture.

I'm disgusted.

I had forgotten about this one when I wrote my post (re the link with something similar)...

Thanks for posting these, Echo Farm.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that in order to be eligible for an Eclipse Award, the photo has to have been published during the year.

I'm sure there are hundreds of more interesting and worthy photos, but they didn't appear in a publication.

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=pr&id=42702

I'd love to see what else was submitted... not just the honorable mention shots but what else was considered.

That one brings back some bad memories. I played the rail horse, Rapid Proof, who went off at 17-1 that day.

I think Revidere's shot of Kodiak Kowboy winning in the rain was the best photo taken this year.

Thank you!!! I'm biased, however. I think these should have been considered!

If a photog sets up at a given jump on a 'chase course and waits long enough, he'll get a "wipe out" shot. It's like the hundred photogs in the BC winners circle waiting for Dettori to leap. My blind aunt could get that shot!

I agree with Pat about Cindy's shot from a few years ago. Maggie Kimmitt is also great at getting cool action shots and of course Barbara Livingston is always in the right spot for an action shot or great paddock shot.

Sarah Andrew does alot of cool shots, often with neat lighting effects etc and I have seen some shots taken by NYer Deb Kral that are spectacular. Some of Tod Marks' stuff in the Saratoga Special and Steeplechase Times are fabulous.

I'd much prefer any of that to the standard fare, especially is the "standard" stuff is a crash.