Specialist Writer of the Year

T H E N O M I N A T I O N S SPECIALIST WRITER

of the Year

“Authoritative and well-informed articles, written in a very clear and entertaining style, most enjoyable to read”

EMMA BERRY (Thoroughbred Daily News)

“Incredibly powerful writing dealing with important topics that go beyond racing, such as Ukraine and addiction, the subjects timely indeed”

JON LEES (Thoroughbred Racing Commentary)

“Excellent, thoroughly well-researched pieces, with complex subjects clearly explained for the non-specialist reader”

JONATHAN HARDING (Racing Post)

“An excellently varied submission, with a first-class interview, a cogent opinion piece and a moving reflection on a tragic death”

ALAN SWEETMAN (Racing Post)

The Specialist Writer award is the second of two new categories we introduced in 2019.

No sport lends itself better to forensic analysis than horseracing and specialists, of whom we have many within the HWPA, were overlooked for far too long when it came to being recognised at these awards. There was once again a very gratifying combination of depth and range to the 2021 entry for this category, and our judges had their work cut out sifting through the impressive output of some of the best brains in the sport in order to narrow it down to these four finalists.

SPECIALIST WRITER OF THE YEAR by Peter Thomas THE NOMINATIONS

NEWS ANALYSIS US GAMBLING MIGHT seem incongruousthe creator of family-iendly films such as Toy StorySnow White to be lookingke a mark in the world ofling. wever, such is the astrocal potential of the US stry that even a muchsymbol of Americana like Jonathan Hardinga rapidly expandingmarket – and what it means back home on $150bn (£113.8bn illegally every year. ) was bet It was a watershed moment.Since the eagerly awaited ruling gambling companies and media organisations – notjust Disney but other brands such as Sports Illustrated However, it is a case of speculating to accumulate asFlutter believes the market forits brands in the US will exceed$20bn (£15.1bn) by 2025, andthat could rise to $34bn(£25.7bn) if additional states,rh

THE $400BN BATTLEGROUND. . . and even Disney wants a slice of the American pie BATTLEGROUNDnd evenev Disney wants a slice of the American pie Y OU might imagine bookmakers would be treading on eggshells as they stare down the barrel of the longjoint-ventures between US andUK companies, as well asacquisitions and mergers. InApril, Caesars Entertainment completed a £2.9bn takeover ofWilliam Hill, but was exclu-sively interested in th i

JONATHAN HARDING The Tuesday column

Pushing casino gamingPushing cin asino gam on sports punters is a bad bet for bookmakers HARDING cross-selling gaming to sports bettors is like a young person ordering their first pint and being offered something stronger by the bartender, a, tender nd it is no less morally questionable to aggressively push tomers towards gaming. it may not be popular, t, ular here ment for the mandatory accounts in which

Jonathan Harding on new owners 888 – and o gthe rise of William Hill’s what we can expect next ingin “How many people were gambling on sports online in 1997?” says Paul Leyland of strategic global advisory business Regulus Partners. “There wasn’t one single factor behind 888’s growth but there’s quite a short list. “It was an early mover with a deep understanding of the value chain, assisted by controlling its own tech- punternt s ier s a bad bet for bookmakerser

company positioned early as a digital, technology-led operator.”

From this running start, 888 steadily grew and in 2002 it launched two new casino brands: Reef Club Casino and Pacific Poker. The following year, it relocated its administrative centre to Gibraltar.

When the company was floated on k h i 2005 888 of several bingo brands, including Costa Bingo.

Expansion has been the order of the day in recent years and one of 888’s most notable investments came in 2019, when it bought BetBright –crucially including its sportsbook t e c h n o l o g y f o r £ 1 5 m – w h i c h narrowed the gap between online gaming and sports betting mergers and acquisitions as a strategic priority and the company’s steady growth to a market cap of £1.5bn has helped this ambition.

The William Hill deal is by far its biggest and boldest investment. It grows 888’s market share roughly fourfold, according to Regular Partners, which says the deal sees 888 overtake bet365 to become the UK’s thirdlargest group operator behind only Flutter and Entain.

This has not been a case of hastily jumping on an opportunity. The deal was brewing for a long time and there have been years of brinkmanship. In

casino in Eilat Israel to study on the south coast of the mechanics of the Monte Carlo games. In 1997, they mortgaged their homes and founded Virtual Holdings Limited with Ron and Shay BenYitzhak, software experts who played a key role in designing their products. The company, which was rebranded 888 Holdings, followed a rather unorthodox route compared to traditional spawned a new UK bookmakers, which built their reputations on racecourses and through betting shops. Yet it has grown from a scrappy outsider to a big industry player, and 24 years on from its origin 888 is preparing to take its first major step outside the digital arena with the £2.2 billion gambling giant acquisition of the non-US assets of one of its big rivals, William Hill.

So how did this online casino reach the point at which it was able to buy a chunk of one of the world’s most recognisable and historic gambling brands – and will it be rewarded for this bold decision? Digital focusand acquisitions

UNLIKE its competitors in the UK, 888 had the critical advantage of starting out as a digital operator at a time when internet access still required a dial-up connection and online gaming was in its infancy.

In 1997, 888, based in the British

Virgin Islands with an Antiguan licence launched its first product

EMMA JONATHAN

BERRY HARDING

There's a fine line between Specialist Writer and 'nerd' and Emma is well aware that she may have crossed it, but it's something she's come to terms with in her evolution into the world of bloodstock at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

"I've discovered a niche that I find endlessly fascinating," she says. "Yes, it's a bit nerdy, but I enjoy the nerdiness of it, the way horses pop up out of pedigrees and the puzzle starts to make sense."

Having cut her teeth in the local press in her home patch of Windsor, Emma graced the pages of Horse and Hound and then Pacemaker, which was where the bloodstock specialism began, to be nurtured by a two-year stint working for Darley, whose Dubai Millennium had just died, leaving a single crop that included the now leading sire Dubawi, focus of one of her learned HWPA articles.

"I've loved seeing his emergence as a stallion," she continues, "and he'd just turned 20 at the beginning of the year, so it seemed the perfect time to tell his story." There's also the tale of Jean Lesbordes and the great broodmare Urban Sea, and a timely piece about Bjorn Nielsen and his stud ambitions for the now-retired Stradivarius, all of which still makes Berry feel "like a kid with my nose pressed up against the window of the sweet shop".

The saga of the long-awaited government review of the gambling industry is a subject that strikes fear into the heart of many a racing journalist, but for Jonathan Harding it has become the kind of specialised subject he might end up answering questions on from the Mastermind chair.

"It's an area that needs a bit of explanation and I'm one of those weird masochistic people that likes the tussles at the top of the sport, the interplay at governance level, both in this country and the US, and all the big subjects you can sink your teeth into," he says. "The challenge is to try and condense it and make sense of it in a digestible way," which is what he has succeeded in doing, learning his trade under the wing of Racing Post industry expert Bill Barber and steadily making the "bigger-picture stuff and the fine detail of funding" part of his own patch. Jon started out reading English at Bristol, then earning his NCTJ qualification, before joining the Post in 2018 and winning the HWPA's Emerging Newcomer award the following year. His submissions on the rise of 888 Holdings, the fast-expanding US gambling market and the perils of the aggressive cross-selling of casino gaming products exemplify just how far he's come in a very short time.

JON LEES

Since leaving the Racing Post in 2018 after a near 20-year stint on the newsdesk, Jon has freelanced far and wide and of late has found a happy home at Thoroughbred Racing Commentary, for whom he has produced the three pieces that form his entry.

They are pieces that showcase his great versatility as a writer, dealing with subjects - such as drug addiction, the global impact of war in Ukraine and being a former Welsh estate agent - that might not have been on his agenda in the days when he was Reporter of the Year. They're still articles that need sniffing out and fleshing out, though, which brings into play all the old skills of a man who began professional life on local papers in his native Pembrokeshire and finally muscling his way into racing by landing a job as a caption writer (that's how long ago it was!) at the Press Association, where he soon became chief racing correspondent. "I think human interest stories are the most interesting," he says, "and I seem to spend a lot of time on the phone talking to people in different time zones, persuading them to open up about what might be sensitive subjects. "This nomination has given me a real lift because it's hard to still operate without the backing of a big organisation, so the recognition is very welcome."

y y a burden knowing what you

had to live up to’ Alan after Sweetman 50 years in talks the fa to the veteran mily business n s

success, Straight Fort, i, n tn he Express Chase ae t St andown. I. n February hy e se ent ot ver Gr ood Review to become the first Irish-trained wd inner of the Schweppes Gold Trophy. By the end of 1972, he had tained td he Irish jump

NE-OF-AF -KIND child who hed all our lives in the best way ible – he will be forever present r lives. unimaginable tragedy, inexpressible grief. N. o words. What ne possibly say ay bout the accident at Glenbeigh that claimed life of 13-year-old Jack de omhead? words. But Heather and Henry omhead, in the depths of their y, somehow fou ound words and thinking tg hat D was ns ot short contacts when took over in 1972. He inherited an Dreaper on n he

impressive portfolio of SA SA HE HE

continued to provide THE COMMENT PAGE grea st st upport, including the Midlands National winner Goonyella, until their deaths in 2017. “Alan wn as a ga reat supporter of Irish racing i g n general, and d association He Revolution Irish Derby tion erby needed to stopdecline – so needed to stopst decline – so make it it a mile anda mil nd a quarte

ALAN SWEETMAN the aper volu ish D cludingvictories at plevelev ,for JimDre W HEN comes to assessing the best jockeys of his time, he prefers to rely on his own direct experience in singling out TommT y Cy arberry forf f the highest praise. “TommT y wy as a wonderfulf jockey, ” h” e says. “Of course I ienced me, but im Tottenham Hotspur FC, an enduring passion through decades of mixed fortune. But how does he view his life in racing? “Well,“W I’m never going to saya I’ve loved every minute of it. If you train racehorses, every day brings you something to worry about. You’ll havea a lot of disappointing days, and it won’t always be the horse’s fault. “My fMy M atf her used to say tay hat ou get a good r well he does, yThe Wednesday column make

An view MAN

W as foul infl

Jack has lived so many more ye ears than the thirtee een – he filled every f h days lw s b ahead. It’s reassuring to hear that HRI and IHRB have ve put counselling ices in place for Jack’s fello

Jack, y, ou will be with us al home in your family and frie hearts. Always ps resent, alway cherished, w, ith sh o many my em from your packed, e, xt xtraordin

Only last Saturday my ornin cause to remember Michael T a young rider who died hal century ago.

Teelin was a nat hometown of Kells days of his appren Clem Magnier, h, e w

The whole of horseracing mourns Jack –he will never be forgotten I

when second to Brief Gale in the Sun An lliance Chase ae t Cheltenham. Since that pair, there he as been just one more Ge rade 1 victory, with Notre Pere in December 2r 007 a year before he e made history as the first It rishtrained wd inner of the Welsh National. However, Ann an nd Alan Pottsof le , earer:Merry Ga san18-time winner view horseracer ing Gold Cup wp ins, t, hat was ts he measure oe f Af rklerk ’s greatness. There ae re too mo any ry ace conditions these de ays, good horses can an void each otherher too readily. That’s a pa ity.”ity. Understandably, then, Dreaper hr olds ds Desert Orchid in high regard “for or his great versatility and for the regularity with whic which hh e showed top-class form” , although when asked to nominate te he best staying chaser since Arkle he is in the Kauto Star camp. it each oh f hf is three children; while while Thomas assists as t Greenogue, Lynsey runs a successful dog-walking business in the area having worked as a ta ranslator ar nd journalist, and Sd hona ha as been part ot f tf he Punchestown team for 14 years after working fg or Horse Re acing Ireland. He is also a so a ports fs an with an eclectic interest, e, mbracing Meath Gh aelic football teams (“the ladies es gavega us something to cheer last yt ear”), Test cricket (t “I’ve ae lways ls oved the game, b, ut not so much the shortened vd ersions”) and r

TRADITION runs deep in Irish jump racing. Nothing is more redolent of that tradition than the Dreaper family and Greenogue, a farm on the border of County Meath and County Dublin, where Tom Dreaper began to train in 1931 and where his son Jim took over the licence 50 years ago in January 1972.

The Dreaper name carries more than its association with the great steeplechasers – the peerless three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner

Arkle, not to mention his brilliant contemporary

Flyingbolt and the likes of

Prince Regent and Fortria. It is also imbued with a reputation for integrity and decency, for humility in victory and grace in defeat.

And Greenogue is much more than a farm and a racing stable. In 1945 it became the family home of Tom Dreaper and his wife Betty, who raised three children, Jim and his sisters Eva and Valerie. In 1974

Jim married Patricia a relatively small string as well as operating a working farm.

“The training of horses means there are constraints on land use, but we’re fortunate to own some lovely Meath acres. And I’m a farmer, just like my father was. Every Wednesday he would go to the cattle sales at Hanlon’s Corner in Dublin. He was a great judge of all livestock.”

Tradition is all very fine but times change. Although it would not have been Dreaper’s style to attempt to turn Greenogue into one of the super-stables that now dominate the jumping landscape, he is not resistant to progress. For example, these days the famous grass gallops are open to other trainers.

Dreaper says: “Every yard in the country has access to allweather facilities, and that has made things a lot easier for people. But there are precious few places where you can gallop jumpers on grass so that they get a feel of what deep ground is like. We provide that facility as well as a set of brush fences, which aren’t that

ALAN

SWEETMAN

Alan didn't have racing in his blood, but he attended an Irish prep school populated by the sons of eminent racing people, and he had a sportsmad father who loved to take him to the races. So, once he had graduated in English from Trinity, Dublin and done a stint as a teacher in the city, while doing shifts at Phoenix Park racecourse in the holidays - "I worked in Vincent O'Brien's box during the glory days, meeting everybody from Larry Hagman and Faye Dunaway to Pete Townshend and Terry Ramsden" - he was ready to follow his destiny.

He has worked with the Racing Post since the late 1980s, starting as assistant to Tony O'Hehir, tipping, analysing and writing a well-regarded column before being let loose on features ten years ago. His interview with Jim Dreaper reads like what it is: an engaging chat with an old friend. His column suggesting a reduction in the distance of the Irish Derby ruffled a few feathers - "not that I'm a fervent campaigner for it, but I threw it out there because I think something needs to be done with it, the way it was with the French Derby". Sadly, his third piece involved more old pals, the De Bromhead family, after the tragic death of poor young son and grandson Jack, but Alan handled it with a sensitivity that caught the mood of the racing community in a troubled time.