Usually I call it nirvana when I capture a photograph of a winning rider/competitor and it's also my best photograph of the day.

I'm not sure what category these two photographs fall under except maybe being in the right place at the right time. One is of trainer Bob Baffert looking at yearlings in 2002 at the Saratoga Yearling Sales Barns, and one is of trainer Janet Elliot taken at this year's running of the 58th Stoneybrook Steeplechase.

It was recently announced that Bob Baffert, who has trained three Kentucky Derby winners, and steeplechase trainer Janet Elliot, who is ranked fourth in money earned in the 2009 National Steeplechase Association Standings (as of April 19), have been elected to the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.

Baffert has trained the winners of eight Triple Crown races, seven Breeders' Cup races, and has handled 10 champions, including Silverbulletday who is also elected to the racing Hall of Fame this year. Baffert and Silverbulletday are the first trainer-horse combination to be inducted in the same year since Neil Drysdale and A.P. Indy entered the Hall of Fame together in 2000.

Baffert also has a contender for the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby May 2 -- a horse called Pioneer of the Nile, a four straight graded stakes winner.

Janet Elliot has been coming to Stoneybrook since it was held on the Walsh property in Southern Pines. Elliot grew up in County Cork, Ireland, where she lived next door to the late Mickey Walsh's brother. Elliot moved to the United States in 1968 to work for Elizabeth Bird. After working for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard for nearly a decade, she opened her own public stable in 1979. She won the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Steeplechase in 1986 with Census, and trained three champions -- Corregio in 1996 and Flat Top in 1998 and 2002.

In 1991, Elliot led the steeplechase standings in wins and earnings, ending Sheppard's 18-year reign as the leading trainer. She is the first woman to win a national training title.

Elliot is only the second woman elected and the Hall of Fame's first female trainer. In 2000, jockey Julie Krone was the first woman elected to the Hall of Fame.

I spoke to Elliot for the first time three years ago covering my first Steeplechase. All I knew then was that she was a leading trainer. I was a nervous novice at interviewing anyone associated with Steeplechase racing. I remember how gracious Elliot was in taking the time between races to answer my questions. I spoke with Elliot again this year at Stoneybrook where she saddled two winners, one in a hurdle and one in a flat race.

Elliot and Baffert are both very approachable. I didn't have much of a conversation with Baffert but he did acknowledge me and say hello. That is what I'm most struck by -- both are people one feels comfortable talking to.

Having the opportunity to take photographs of the greats of racing is definitely a career highlight.

And I'll lay claim to bragging rights, thank you very much.