Jessica Paquette calling Parx

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by ReplayRandall

I miss the announcer-less racing from the good 'Ol days at Keeneland...

You can return to those halcyon days. It's called a MUTE button.

[PaceAdvantage]

You of all people know announcers get shit on all the time...even the great ones.

They all get "graded" on the internet...no matter what they look like

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

You of all people know announcers get shit on all the time...even the great ones.

They all get "graded" on the internet...no matter what they look like

EXACTLY

[ReplayRandall]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

You can return to those halcyon days. It's called a MUTE button.

I DO IT ALL THE TIME...FOR YEARS.

[rastajenk]

I am an objective, fair observer with no agenda. I watched the Philly races Saturday:

She is still not very good. Her thought-processes seem to be all over the place.

[Inner Dirt]

I guess all the people who think Jessica is real bad did not play Hollywood Park after Harry Henson retired. There were some good ones like Luke Kruytbosch, and Vic Stauffer, some decent short timers that did not stay, but some real duds.Right now I can only think of one of the duds names but no reason to mention him as he is a decent host. Are there some of you male chauvinistic pigs that can't get used to a woman announcing professional sports?

The reason for the last line is it took me a while to get used to women getting more involved in sports talk and announcing, it was just weird to me to not hear a man's voice. Not sure what station, I first turned on a sports talk station and heard two woman on a Saturday, could have been the mighty 690 out of Sad Diego. It seemed these two woman were on every Saturday for a while. They were actually very knowledgeable, but it took awhile for me to get used to them.


As I said before who a person likes or dislikes as a sports announcer can just be a personal preference. I had a friend that would throw a fit every time Luke would say "asked for speed." I personally have a pet peeve for "takes command", I even think the highly regarded Dave Johnson would over use that.

[Bustin Stones]

I don't get it, Vic. You are defending someone who doesn't have 10% of your experience or talent at what you did. If an army of people with her performance replaced you and others who are doing a much better job, that would not demean your career? It would mean that part of your life's work wasn't all that important. That honing your craft was a silly flirtation that would have been better spent on a more worthwhile project. I'm not a fan of handing out participation trophies.

[castaway01]

This is one of those "hopeless cause" discussions in 2023.

Jessica is better than she was, but she's not good.

Parx put her on the mic with virtually no experience calling races. In the end, it's on them.

Obviously there are plenty of women who know racing and are great on the air. NYRA alone has two (three?) of them. So it's silly to take it to that level and it always degenerates into stupidity. But the reality is that there aren't many great track announcers because it is a very particular skill set that few have experience with.

[VeryOldMan]

Originally Posted by castaway01

This is one of those "hopeless cause" discussions in 2023.

Jessica is better than she was, but she's not good.

Parx put her on the mic with virtually no experience calling races. In the end, it's on them.

Obviously there are plenty of women who know racing and are great on the air. NYRA alone has two (three?) of them. So it's silly to take it to that level and it always degenerates into stupidity. But the reality is that there aren't many great track announcers because it is a very particular skill set that few have experience with.

I listened to her early calls (and posted upthread re same) and also watched a fair amount of the Parx PA Derby card.

She's getting better. She's not an elite race caller and still needs work. Those statements shouldn't be controversial. And it has nothing to do with gender.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

I guess all the people who think Jessica is real bad did not play Hollywood Park after Harry Henson retired. There were some good ones like Luke Kruytbosch, and Vic Stauffer, some decent short timers that did not stay, but some real duds.Right now I can only think of one of the duds names but no reason to mention him as he is a decent host. Are there some of you male chauvinistic pigs that can't get used to a woman announcing professional sports?

The reason for the last line is it took me a while to get used to women getting more involved in sports talk and announcing, it was just weird to me to not hear a man's voice. Not sure what station, I first turned on a sports talk station and heard two woman on a Saturday, could have been the mighty 690 out of Sad Diego. It seemed these two woman were on every Saturday for a while. They were actually very knowledgeable, but it took awhile for me to get used to them.


As I said before who a person likes or dislikes as a sports announcer can just be a personal preference. I had a friend that would throw a fit every time Luke would say "asked for speed." I personally have a pet peeve for "takes command", I even think the highly regarded Dave Johnson would over use that.

Bine Masters
Milo Perrins
Don Alexander

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by Bustin Stones

I don't get it, Vic. You are defending someone who doesn't have 10% of your experience or talent at what you did. If an army of people with her performance replaced you and others who are doing a much better job, that would not demean your career? It would mean that part of your life's work wasn't all that important. That honing your craft was a silly flirtation that would have been better spent on a more worthwhile project. I'm not a fan of handing out participation trophies.

You're right Stones you don't get it. Nobody was born to be a race caller. My first years in Detroit were tragic. My learning curve was much slower than Jessica's.

All the great announcers, and I'm not saying I belong with them, made thousands of calls before they had a clue or much control over what they said and how it sounded.

The mere task of accurately calling a race is fabulously difficult. Then you progress to about 88 different levels as you improve, figure out who you're going to be as a race caller and reach new challenges.

If you try to skip the maturation process it will NEVER EVER work. It can only be done by learning and more importantly experiencing everything that goes into making a good race call.

I called 50,000 and think about 12 of them were good and they wouldn't be the one's you might think.

I'm more into calling a 14 horse field going 6 furlongs in a driving rainstorm. Slowly, clearly and concisely and getting in each and every name TWICE with good rhythm and description BEFORE the leader got to the 1/4 pole.

Then taking them home in such a manner that didn't distract the enjoyment of the people who wagered on the race. To me THAT'S a great race call.

This young lady is lightyears ahead of where I was at a similar point in my career back in 1985.

I didn't know if I thought she would eventually become very good. I do now. But it's a lifetime process. 10's of thousand races must be called each and every one a building block to attaining the goals you set for yourself.

And BTW for my money I actually never did.

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

Bine Masters
Milo Perrins
Don Alexander

That would be Don the self proclaimed "golden throat" Alexander.

[thaskalos]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

You're right Stones you don't get it. Nobody was born to be a race caller. My first years in Detroit were tragic. My learning curve was much slower than Jessica's.

All the great announcers, and I'm not saying I belong with them, made thousands of calls before they had a clue or much control over what they said and how it sounded.

The mere task of accurately calling a race is fabulously difficult. Then you progress to about 88 different levels as you improve, figure out who you're going to be as a race caller and reach new challenges.

If you try to skip the maturation process it will NEVER EVER work. It can only be done by learning and more importantly experiencing everything that goes into making a good race call.

I called 50,000 and think about 12 of them were good and they wouldn't be the one's you might think.

I'm more into calling a 14 horse field going 6 furlongs in a driving rainstorm. Slowly, clearly and concisely and getting in each and every name TWICE with good rhythm and description BEFORE the leader got to the 1/4 pole.

Then taking them home in such a manner that didn't distract the enjoyment of the people who wagered on the race. To me THAT'S a great race call.

This young lady is lightyears ahead of where I was at a similar point in my career back in 1985.

I didn't know if I thought she would eventually become very good. I do now. But it's a lifetime process. 10's of thousand races must be called each and every one a building block to attaining the goals you set for yourself.

And BTW for my money I actually never did.

This is one of the very best posts that I've had the pleasure of reading during my 17 years on this board. Pure class!

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

This is one of the very best posts that I've had the pleasure of reading during my 17 years on this board. Pure class!

Magnanimous

[lamboguy]

she has called about 3 great races for me this year, one of them today! and those are the only I have won during her tenure, but 2 of them were real great, and I don't think I bet 10 races there since she has been a race caller there. i think I have bet less races in New York than at Parx.