Trot Magazine is making a splash this year in New Orleans, Louisiana; the magazine has been selected as a finalist in a variety of award categories at the 2009 American Horse Publications Conference

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For over 30 years, AHP has been celebrating the best and the brightest in equine journalism at its annual gathering. The event is well attended by a variety of equine editors and journalists from across the continent — people that represent just about every niche market in the North American horse industry (racing, riding, health, breeding, showing, lifestyle and more).

The three-day meeting is always wrapped up with the much–anticipated awards banquet, where all publications compete for top titles in feature writing, news coverage, editorial and cover design, instructional pieces, general excellence and whole gamut of other categories.

This year, Trot has been selected as a finalist in four categories for exceptional material it produced in 2008. Those categories and their selections are:

Feature Writing
Two Trot stories were named finalists in this highly competitive category — Something’s Gone Awry, written by its associate editor, Kim Fisher (appeared in the May 2008 issue), and Finding the Light, penned by freelancer Jackie Gill (appeared in December 2008).

Something’s Gone Awry tells the story of the deterioration of Ontario’s Dresden Raceway. Looking at the state of disrepair at this small-town track despite the influx of government dollars, the story was published in Trot’s annual State of the Industry issue last year as we questioned the implications of slot funding for harness racing.

Gill’s Finding the Light introduced Trot readers to Stuart McIntosh — a passionate owner and entrepreneur that faced tremendous challenges when he lost his sight later in life, but returned nonetheless to harness racing with a renewed love of the sport he thought he had to give up.

Instructional Article
In last year’s yearling issue (September 2008), Trot published Break the Trend — a piece detailing the 10-step method of breaking yearlings used by Ontario trainer Carl Jamieson. Written by associate editor Kim Fisher, the goal of the clinic-style article was to walk readers through an alternative to more traditional breaking methods.

General Excellence Magazine
Competing against other magazines of equivalent circulation (between 10,000 and 20,000 readers), Trot was chosen as one of the best — the idea being that the winner of this category does an outstanding job each month at catering to its readership.

The award winners, chosen from the finalists, will be announced at the banquet in New Orleans on Saturday, June 27. Stay tuned for the results.