Bowen, Cook, Kerrison Selected to Media Roll of Honor

Esteemed writers Edward L. Bowen and Ray Kerrison and pioneering photographer Charles Christian "C. C." Cook have been selected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor. Edward L. Bowen (1942-2025), who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year as a Pillar of the Turf, enjoyed a prolific career as a racing journalist and historian for more than 60 years. An editor-in-chief of The BloodHorse magazine and the author of 22 books on horse racing, Bowen also served 24 years as president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, traditionally the leading source of funding for veterinary research specifically to promote horse health and soundness. He was the chair of numerous committees at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, including the contemporary Nominating Committee for 38 years, beginning in 1987. Bowen was born in West Virgina but grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he developed an early interest in horse racing from reading the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley and watching locally televised races from Hialeah Park and Gulfstream Park. Bowen spent post-high school and college summers working for the local Sun-Sentinel newspaper, on the broodmare crew at Ocala Stud in Central Florida, and as a hot walker and groom at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. In 1963, he secured a writing job at The BloodHorse in Lexington and transferred from the University of Florida to the University of Kentucky. From 1968 to 1970, Bowen was editor of the monthly Canadian Horse magazine in Toronto, then returned to Lexington to become managing editor of The BloodHorse. In January 1987, he succeeded his mentor, Kent Hollingsworth, as editor-in-chief. Bowen held that post for five years, was transferred to senior editor in 1992, and left the publication in 1993. He was hired as president of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation in 1994. From 1994 until his retirement at the end of 2018, Bowen's role at Grayson included support of the board's raising sufficient funds to provide $22 million for research projects. That total was significant in raising to $32.1 million, which was provided to 45 universities to fund 412 projects since 1983. Both during and after his employment at The BloodHorse, Bowen has been active in writing books commissioned by that firm as well as other publishers. In addition to authoring 22 racing books, he contributed chapters, forewords, or prefaces for 18 additional volumes on racing and two books on natural attractions open to the public. Bowen won the following writing awards: Eclipse Award (magazine division), National Turf Writers Association's Walter Haight Award, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders' Charles Engelhard Award, Pimlico's Old Hilltop Award, ForeWord Magazine's Gold Level designation (Sports Category), and the Ocala-Marion County Chamber of Commerce Journalism Award. Honored as a Kentucky Colonel, Bowen was a past president of the Thoroughbred Club of America and a board member of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. He served six years in the U.S. Army Reserve and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. Bowen was the Thoroughbred Club of America's 2022 Honor Guest and was presented the inaugural Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Award for Meritorious Service to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2023. "Ed contributed to the betterment of racing in so many ways and the historical record of his outstanding writing will live on forever," said Brien Bouyea, the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame and Communications Director. "Ed built a reputation on integral reporting and captivating storytelling. He loved horses and horse racing and that passion shined through in his vivid work." Charles Christian "C. C." Cook (1873-1954) was one of American racing's first and most influential photographers. A native of Carmi, Illinois, Cook worked as a photojournalist for newspapers in Chicago before becoming a freelancer around 1900. His images of animals in the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and the Barnum and Bailey Circus attracted wide attention. Cook began his association with racing photography at Washington Park in Chicago in the late 1890s. Cook was one of the first photographers in the United States to specialize in horse racing photography, as well as portraits and scenic images at various racetracks. When racing was banned in his home state of Illinois, Cook relocated to New York. Beginning in 1906, Cook worked for New York's Globe newspaper and later as a staff photographer for The Morning Telegraph, the sister publication of Daily Racing Form. During World War I, he served as an aerial photographer for the U.S. Army. For decades, Cook was a commercial photographer at tracks in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, and New York, among others. He also spent time as the official track photographer at Florida's Hialeah Park. Cook's racing photography included subjects such as Hall of Fame racehorses Artful, Citation, Exterminator, Gallant Fox, Man o' War, Regret, and Twenty Grand, as well as thousands of images of notable jockeys, trainers, owners, racing officials, and track scenes spanning the late 1890s through the first half of the 20th century. A collection of more than 18,000 glass plates and negatives shot by Cook was purchased in the 1950s by horse owner Arnold Hanger and donated to the Keeneland Library in Lexington, Kentucky. "Cook was a prolific photographer who established trends in U.S. racing photography as both an artist and as a pioneer of track photography equipment that evolved heavily in the early decades of the 20th century," said Keeneland Library Director Roda Ferraro. "The Cook Collection remains a pillar of Keeneland Library's vast photography collections, and Cook's seminal body of work is alive and influential as we connect people daily to his captured race day moments for use in international articles, books, films, exhibits, social media, and track and farm marketing campaigns." Ray Kerrison (1930-2022) was one of racing's most respected writers and had few peers as an investigative reporter. A native of Australia, Kerrison wrote for the New York Post from 1977 through 2013, serving the paper as both a news and horse racing columnist. He covered 32 editions of the Kentucky Derby and numerous other major races, including Breeders' Cup events. Kerrison began his career in journalism in Australia and joined News Limited in 1963 in its New York bureau. He moved on to edit the National Star, Rupert Murdoch's first U.S. publication, in the early 1970s, then was hired by The Post in 1977 to cover horse racing. In his first year at The Post, Kerrison uncovered a racing scandal in which one horse raced under the name of another at Belmont Park. The betting fix involved the switching of the identities of the horses Lebon and Cinzano. The latter, a champion in Uruguay, raced under the name of Lebon, a non-descript horse who also came out of South America. Running under the name of Lebon, Cinzano won a race at Belmont at odds of 57-1. For this reporting, Kerrison was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. A couple of years later, Kerrison and fellow racing writer John Piesen broke the story of the biggest race-fixing scam in New York history. "Racing's Darkest Hour" was The Post's headline. Kerrison's reporting played a key role in uncovering the scandal that led to charges being brought against jockey Con Errico, mobster Anthony Ciulla, and more than 20 others. Along with his racing writing, Kerrison reported on many other the major news events during his career, including Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, the first moon landing in 1969, and the Munich Olympics tragedy in 1972. "Ray was smart, kind, dryly witty, and as committed to his craft as any journalist I've ever known," Bob McManus, The Post's retired editorial page editor, said after Kerrison's death in 2022. "He was a man of unshakable principle, which was obvious in his writing, but also a fellow who respected his readers' intelligence. His goal was to persuade, not to lecture, and while his work could be controversial, it always was honest." "I used to refer to him as the Fred Astaire of thoroughbred racing because he was the best," former Post sports editor Greg Gallo said. "He was the classiest guy who ever worked that beat. No one was better as a journalist. "