Roberts wins Media Eclipse Award for Photography

America Alive, outside, went on to capture the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic later in the year  (Lynn Roberts)

Lynn Roberts has won the Media Eclipse Award for Photography for her picture
of a three-horse photo finish in the January 15 Colonel E. R. Bradley H. at Fair Grounds. The photograph, taken from the inside rail, depicts AMERICA ALIVE
(American Chance), HONOR IN WAR (Lord At War [Arg]) and RAPID PROOF (Fast Play),
noses apart at the wire. It appeared on The Blood-Horse website the same
day.

“God set this shot up for me because I could not have done this on my own,”
Roberts said. “Lou Hodges (Fair Grounds track photographer) likes to place me in
some interesting locations, and one of them is on the inside rail. I imagined
the close finish as the horses were approaching the wire and I shot seven
frames, and it turned out absolutely perfect.”

Roberts is originally from Yazoo City, Mississippi, and currently resides in
Franklinton, Louisiana.

Honorable mentions in the Photography category went to David Stephenson for
his shot of Grade 3 winner CULINARY (El Amante) receiving a bath at Churchill
Downs, which appeared on the Lexington Herald-Leader website on May 5;
and to Kirk Schlea for capturing the contact between SCRAPPY T
(Fit to Fight) and AFLEET ALEX (Northern Afleet) at the top of the stretch in
this year’s Preakness S. (G1), which appeared in the Thoroughbred Times
of May 28.

The panel of judges in the Photography category was comprised of Steve Fine
of Sports Illustrated, Jim Gensheimer of the San Jose Mercury News
and Danny Farrell, retired New York Daily News photographer.

Eclipse Awards are bestowed upon members of the media for outstanding
coverage of Thoroughbred racing.

The 2005 Eclipse Awards ceremony will be held on January 23 at the Regent
Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, California.