Monmouth Park honors Dan Tordjman with Bill Handleman Award

Monmouth Park put its Haskell week spotlight on Dan Tordjman on July 14, naming the president of The Jockey Club’s Media Ventures and America’s Best Racing the 2026 Bill Handleman Award winner for outstanding coverage of last year’s Haskell Stakes. The award is handed out each year before the Haskell, and this year’s race will be run for the 59th time on July 18 at Monmouth Park, where the $1 million Grade 1 event remains the track’s signature summer card.

The Handleman Award was first presented in 2012 and is named for Bill Handleman, the longtime Asbury Park Press sportswriter who was a familiar presence at Monmouth Park before he died in June 2010 at age 62. Monmouth has used the honor to recognize the people shaping how the race reaches fans, not just the people writing about it after the fact. That makes Tordjman a natural fit: his work has centered on digital racing content, livestreaming and social media coverage aimed at widening the sport’s audience.

Tordjman became president of TJC Media Ventures in 2025, and his reach at Monmouth was on display during Haskell Stakes and Haskell Preview Day, when he co-hosted America’s Best Racing livestreams with Jessica Paquette. Monmouth general manager John Heims said Tordjman’s work helps usher Thoroughbred racing into the future through inventive and original content across social media and digital platforms. The recognition also comes with a personal edge. Tordjman said the award meant a great deal because he once worked flipping burgers at Monmouth Park as a college kid, turning the honor into a full-circle moment at the same track where he once took a summer job.

The award has increasingly reflected the sport’s changing media landscape. Christina Bossinakis won it in 2025, Carlos Morales took it in 2024 after his horse-racing videos drew more than six million views across three social platforms, Larry Collmus won in 2023, and John Brennan received it in 2022. In other words, Monmouth has not confined the Handleman Award to print columns or race calls. It has also made room for creators whose work can be counted in clicks, streams and shares.

That matters at a race like the Haskell, which was created in 1968 to honor former Monmouth president and chairman Amory L. Haskell and became a 3-year-old invitational in 1981. It often feeds into the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, which is why Monmouth treats Haskell week like more than a single race. Tordjman’s award sits right in that shift, where the race’s future is being sold as aggressively as the race itself.