Ramon Dominguez to receive Merit Award at Alibi Breakfast

From a Maryland Jockey Club release

Pimlico Race Course today announced the winners of this year’s Preakness media awards. Honorees will be recognized and awards presented at the May 15 Alibi Breakfast in the Terrace Dining Room. The ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m., two days prior to the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, the $1.5 million Preakness® Stakes (G1).

The Special Award of Merit is given to someone who has made a positive impact on the racing industry. The 2014 winner is Ramon Dominguez. Dominguez, who retired last June retired with 4,985 career victories and earnings of $191.6 million, was a regular rider at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park early in his career. The three-time Eclipse Award winner for outstanding rider arrived in Maryland in 2000 and won 1,012 races at the major Maryland tracks over the next five years, including 297 victories in 2001. He earned his first Grade 1 score when he guided A Huevo to victory in the 2003 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash.

“I am very proud to be presented The Special Award of Merit,” Dominguez said. “It has been an honor to be part of horse racing in Maryland, a place where I have great memories as well as friends that I will always treasure.”

Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred reporter Sean Clancy is the recipient of the David F. Woods Award for his feature centering around jockey Gary Stevens’ return to glory. Clancy becomes the first writer to win the award four times, previously earning the honor in 2004, 2007-08. The Woods Award honors the best story for the previous year. Judging was done by Preakness notes team members Ed Gray, Mike Kane and Matt Graves, all award winning turf writers.

Getty Images photographer Patrick Smith is the winner of the Jerry Frutkoff Preakness Photo Award, sponsored by Nikon. Smith captured a fist-pumping Stevens after Oxbow crossed the finish line first in Preakness 138 last May. Judging was completed by Nikon’s Mark Kettenhofen and Maryland Jockey Club photographers Jim McCue and Jerry Dzierwinski.

The prestigious Old Hilltop Award will be bestowed upon WJZ-TV sports director Mark Viviano  and HRTV executive producer and senior vice president Amy Zimmerman for covering Thoroughbred racing with excellence and distinction. Viviano will be working his 17^th Preakness next month. Under Zimmerman’s guidance, HRTV has either won or received honorable mention for the Eclipse Award for National Television Feature eight consecutive years.

The Honorary Postmaster for Preakness 139 Station is Laurel Park-based trainer Tim Keefe, who competed in Ironman Triathlons two of the last three years to help raise money for horse-related charities.

Baltimore radio personalities Scott Garceau and Keith Mills, former broadcast partners at WMAR-TV from 1987-2006, will host the event for the sixth consecutive year.

Most Rev. William Lori, the Archbishop of Baltimore, will provide the invocation for the third straight year.

The Alibi Breakfast is a popular fixture of Preakness week festivities, starting in the late 1930s on the porch of the historical Pimlico Clubhouse when a group of trainers, owners and other dignitaries would gather in the mornings to expound upon the merits of their horses. Today’s event is a descendant of the original gathering to celebrate the event and solicit interesting race predictions.