Two pieces focusing on the death of Maple Leaf Mel in the 2023 Test Stakes on Aug. 5 at Saratoga Race Course have been selected for Eclipse Awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced on Friday. Sean Clancy, the co-editor and publisher of the Saratoga Special, and Tim Layden, a writer-at-large for NBCSports.com, were each selected for an Eclipse Award for their pieces examining the tragic death, which sent shock waves throughout the racing community and cast a pall over last summer’s Saratoga meet. Clancy’s piece, “The Worst Test,” which won the Eclipse for News/Enterprise Writing, focused on the immediate aftermath of the death within the Saratoga backstretch community. It appeared the morning after the race in the Saratoga Special, the newspaper he co-founded with his brother. Clancy also won an Eclipse for writing in 2009. Layden’s piece, which won in the Feature/Commentary category, appeared on the NBC Sports website on Nov. 1, several days prior to the two-day Breeders’ Cup event. The piece relied heavily on interviews with Maple Leaf Mel’s trainer, Melanie Giddings, and considered the impacts of the death on the public perception of racing and its social license. Layden has won an Eclipse for writing four times, including last year. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Other Media Eclipse Awards announced on Friday included: * NBC Sports was selected for the Live Television Programming Eclipse for its production of coverage of the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita Park. The production included live telecasts on three networks: NBC, USA Network, and Peacock. This was the fourth year in a row that NBC was selected for the Live Television Eclipse. * Woodbine Entertainment’s television production team was selected for the Television Feature Eclipse for an eight-minute retrospective of Secretariat’s last race, in the 1973 Canadian International at Woodbine. Along with new interviews of those who attended the race, the piece featured archival footage of Secretariat’s arrival in Canada, his workouts, and the race itself, which sent fans scurrying over the rail of the track’s dirt course as Secretariat ran down the stretch of the turf course unchallenged. * The Writers’ Room of the Thoroughbred Daily News was selected for the Multimedia Eclipse for a 20-minute webcast on Sept. 23 featuring TDN reporter Bill Finley; handicapper and television broadcaster Randy Moss; and racing analyst Zoe Cadman. During the webcast, the hosts interview Wade Yost, a Gulf War veteran whose son Carson is the namesake of a stakes-winning horse named Carson’s Run. Carson Yost, who appears alongside his father during the interview, has the extremely rare genetic disorder Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, the same disease carried by the late Cody Dorman, the namesake of the champion horse Cody’s Wish. * Carolyn Simancik, a photographer for Eclipse Sportswire, was selected for the Photography Eclipse for a head-on shot showing the close-quarters struggle between Cody’s Wish and National Treasure as they charged toward the finish line in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. The photograph was posted on the Press Box website on Nov. 4, shortly after the race concluded. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.