In the few races I watched over the weekend I was surprised that her voice didn't bother me. Since a good voice is a huge part of the job and she has that it's probably worth allowing her to develop some more.
It's a matter of the call keeping up with the events in the race. The call has to flow well with where your eyes land as a spectator. That's one of the big reasons Imbriale has never bothered me, his cadence is really spot on with where my eyes land. The new announcer at NYRA is good but I don't find him to be any better than Imbriale in that sense. For a minute there when I first heard him I thought they were letting Aragona call a race or two. (just kidding)
Anyway I ran way ahead of Jessica's calls several times. To be fair it's a difficult task, I don't know how much time you should give someone when fans have expectations. There are tracks that I personally tend to avoid just because of the announcer. I'm also not a huge fan of making better announcers who may have wanted the job be turned away in order to give a woman the opportunity. IMO this job isn't really the place for that.
With that said after hearing Jessica though I'm also confident there are probably some women who can bring it all to the table. No matter what happens going forward she's still blazing a good trail. Is Bobby Neuman announcing anywhere? If it doesn't work out for Jessica I'd definitely recommend Bobby.
