The Thoroughbred Industry Employees Award (TIEA) ceremony will be held virtually this year on Thursday, Nov. 5 at Noon Eastern Time. The ceremony can be viewed at tiea.org, as well as streamed live with the TIEA’s media partners TDN.com, BloodHorse.com, PaulickReport.com, DRF.com and on the TVG app.

Matt Lyons, Candy Meadows Farm’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, is one of three finalists in the Leadership in Breeding Award category. The winner will receive a prize of $7,500, with an additional $2,500 being awarded to the winner’s farm. The two runners-up will receive $2,500 each, with the same amount going to their farm or stable.

Lyons is a graduate of the Equine Science and Business program at the University of Limerick. Matt grew up on a farm in East Galway, Ireland and has always had a love of raising young stock. He came to Kentucky on work experience over 20 years ago. He gained early experience at top Kentucky farms like Glennwood Farm, Dromoland Farm, and Taylor Made Farm and has worked at the Farm Manager/General Manager level in Kentucky for 15 years. He helped John Sykes found Woodford Thoroughbreds in 2007, and was promoted to Vice President in 2015. Under Matt’s leadership, Woodford Thoroughbreds became a perennial leading consignor. In 2018, he became Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Candy Meadows Farm.

In its first four years, TIEA has awarded more than $500,000 in prize money to 86 finalists, with over 700 nominations across the seven categories.