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The 2010 Eclipse Award for Photography goes to Michael Clevenger of the Louisville Courier-Journal for his inside remote photograph of the dramatic finish between Blame and Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup Classic. The photo appeared on front page of the Courier-Journal on November 7. The 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic on was one of the biggest moments in sports of 2010. The undefeated 6-year-old mare Zenyatta was trying to repeat as the Classic winner before more than 72,000 fans under darkening skies at historic Churchill Downs, the culminating race of the Breeders' Cup World Championships.


Trailing the field most of the way, Zenyatta unleashed a furious stretch drive but fell short to Blame by a head at the wire. Clevenger's ground-level photo captures both Blame and Zenyatta, side by side battling to the wire. The horses are illuminated by the lights of the stretch in the center of the frame with the famed Twin Spires above and the crowd on its feet in the background.

Clevenger said, "Winning the Eclipse Award is truly exciting and an honor that leaves me speechless because I am blessed to be recognized for making images of a beautiful sport. I know how hard so many photographers work at their craft and dedicate themselves to photographing horse racing. To be up against them is humbling, and it's humbling to being even considered for an Eclipse. My true reward is to have the opportunity to have the best seats in the house to see racing history made and working at a newspaper that values what I do. I also appreciate the opportunity to make photographs that our readers enjoy seeing.

Winning the Eclipse is the icing on the cake. With Zenyatta's tendency to run wide, the challenge was to figure out where she might be at the end. I timed the shutter release that she would run in the middle of the picture. It's difficult to know and the horses don't tell you. It's definitely a gamble, coupled with the fact that you didn't know how dark it was going to be for the race."

This category was judged by Jim Gensheimer, photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News; John Engelhardt, director of publicity at River Downs and Dan Johnson of the Des Moines Register. Honorable mentions went to Skip Dickstein for his photo of the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic, which appeared in the Blood-Horse magazine on November 9, and Barbara Livingston for her photo of Naughty New Yorker breaking from the gate between two horses at Saratoga, which ran in Daily Racing Form on August 2. Read more: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/60483/clevenger-wins-second-photo-eclipse-award#ixzz1AKZPVNeN

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