Iles won the Graham Goffin Memorial Award Best Feature Article and the Graham Goffin Memorial Award Best Regional Story.

The best feature article "Group race joy for French special on many fronts" outlined a breakthrough maiden Group race win for talented young driver Tayla French was made even more special by who she won the race for and who it was named after.

Iles' article "Standing ground: Marong Light Harness Club fights to retain trotting track" won the best regional story award.

It was the second-straight year Iles won a Joseph Coulter Media Award after he won the best news story last year.

"I feel genuinely honoured to have won these awards and for the second year be able to share in a terrific awards haul for Bendigo racing identities, with historian Noel Ridge also winning two awards this year,'' Iles said.

"It's an absolute privilege to be able to do what I genuinely love doing in telling people's stories each and every day, particularly across all three codes of racing - gallops, trots and greyhounds. It's a passion and a joy, not a job.

"I sincerely thank every trainer, driver, jockey, owner and official for not being shy in picking up the phone or welcoming me into their stable or home. They're the important people in all of this.

"Thanks too to my sports colleagues at the Addy for never getting tired of me pitching racing story ideas and the racing banter.

"And I am forever indebted to the assistance in making these stories happen from the likes of Paul Campbell and Noel Ridge and photographers Claire Weston, Stuart McCormick, Geoffrey Durn, Desiree Pettit-Keating and Charli Masotti over the years for putting up with my constant requests for pics."

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