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Old 07-27-2022, 01:28 PM   #106
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HUh??

Have you watch since day 1?

Only watched one card, Saratoga has never been kind to my wallet, also with my cell internet during peak hours videos take forever to load, it seemed lowering the resolution didn't work as they stayed at HD. I just watched to get an opinion on John Imbriale 2022, I figured since I believe he is no longer a spring chicken his skills could have declined, I think he is still fine.


I do think what track announcers a person likes is just sometimes a personal preference. I always liked Alan Buchdahl, yet he never seemed to get any long term work, I first heard him as the back up at Santa Anita in the late 70's early 80's.
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Old 07-27-2022, 01:44 PM   #107
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Only watched one card, Saratoga has never been kind to my wallet, also with my cell internet during peak hours videos take forever to load, it seemed lowering the resolution didn't work as they stayed at HD. I just watched to get an opinion on John Imbriale 2022, I figured since I believe he is no longer a spring chicken his skills could have declined, I think he is still fine.


I do think what track announcers a person likes is just sometimes a personal preference. I always liked Alan Buchdahl, yet he never seemed to get any long term work, I first heard him as the back up at Santa Anita in the late 70's early 80's.
Travis Stone should be calling this meet.
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Old 07-27-2022, 03:01 PM   #108
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Only watched one card, Saratoga has never been kind to my wallet, also with my cell internet during peak hours videos take forever to load, it seemed lowering the resolution didn't work as they stayed at HD. I just watched to get an opinion on John Imbriale 2022, I figured since I believe he is no longer a spring chicken his skills could have declined, I think he is still fine.


I do think what track announcers a person likes is just sometimes a personal preference. I always liked Alan Buchdahl, yet he never seemed to get any long term work, I first heard him as the back up at Santa Anita in the late 70's early 80's.
As I recall, Buchdahl was the announcer at Oak Tree and started very, very young in the mid-1970's. He also backed up Harry Henson at Hollywood Park. At the time, SA and Hollywood very much saw themselves as competitors, and around Fall 1982, Hollywood Park fired Henson and offered the job to Buchdahl, who then worked the 1982 Oak Tree season while Oak Tree looked for a new announcer. They found what they were looking for in a young announcer from South Africa named Trevor Denman, who came in to work the 1983 Oak Tree meeting and the rest was history.

But Marje Everett (the owner of Hollywood Park at the time), I guess, decided she didn't like Buchdahl so well and replaced him with Jim Byers. After that, Buchdahl has worked on and off as a racecaller but never on as big a stage as he had at Oak Tree and Hollywood Park (he called several of John Henry's races, for instance, and Landaluce's last two starts).

FWIW, I remember Santa Anita featured Buchdahl on the interview program it used to run on KDOC-56 locally sometime in the late 1980's, and he said he actually found day-to-day race calling something of a grind, though he missed calling the really big races. So maybe that has something to do with him not having a long-term gig as a racecaller- you really have to love the day to day grind.
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Old 07-27-2022, 03:23 PM   #109
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As I recall, Buchdahl was the announcer at Oak Tree and started very, very young in the mid-1970's. He also backed up Harry Henson at Hollywood Park. At the time, SA and Hollywood very much saw themselves as competitors, and around Fall 1982, Hollywood Park fired Henson and offered the job to Buchdahl, who then worked the 1982 Oak Tree season while Oak Tree looked for a new announcer. They found what they were looking for in a young announcer from South Africa named Trevor Denman, who came in to work the 1983 Oak Tree meeting and the rest was history.

But Marje Everett (the owner of Hollywood Park at the time), I guess, decided she didn't like Buchdahl so well and replaced him with Jim Byers. After that, Buchdahl has worked on and off as a racecaller but never on as big a stage as he had at Oak Tree and Hollywood Park (he called several of John Henry's races, for instance, and Landaluce's last two starts).

FWIW, I remember Santa Anita featured Buchdahl on the interview program it used to run on KDOC-56 locally sometime in the late 1980's, and he said he actually found day-to-day race calling something of a grind, though he missed calling the really big races. So maybe that has something to do with him not having a long-term gig as a racecaller- you really have to love the day to day grind.

Thanks, your memory is better than mine, I remember Alan as more of a back up at Santa Anita, which I first went to in 1979. Do you remember the other callers at that time before Denman came to SA? I did not know Henson was fired by Hollywood Park, I thought he retired. I remember KDOC, mostly for the replays. From 1979-1983 I lived in Hemet out of range of KDOC, but I had an old 1950's radio that could pick up 870am KIEV and listened to Bill Garr. Oh, the memories.
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Old 07-27-2022, 05:25 PM   #110
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Thanks, your memory is better than mine, I remember Alan as more of a back up at Santa Anita, which I first went to in 1979. Do you remember the other callers at that time before Denman came to SA? I did not know Henson was fired by Hollywood Park, I thought he retired. I remember KDOC, mostly for the replays. From 1979-1983 I lived in Hemet out of range of KDOC, but I had an old 1950's radio that could pick up 870am KIEV and listened to Bill Garr. Oh, the memories.
Other announcers back then were Terry Gilligan (Joe Hernandez's backup, who became the Santa Anita and Oak Tree announcer pre-Buchdahl, and later the Los Al announcer), Chic Anderson (hired by Santa Anita after they let Gilligan go; he didn't really gel here and eventually left for NYRA), Dave Johnson (picked up by Santa Anita in 1978 after Anderson left for NY; left after 1984 winter season and was replaced by Trevor), and Jim Byers (who backed up Johnson and then was hired as the Hollywood Park announcer after Buchdahl; also called Los Al harness).
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Old 07-27-2022, 07:06 PM   #111
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Other announcers back then were Terry Gilligan (Joe Hernandez's backup, who became the Santa Anita and Oak Tree announcer pre-Buchdahl, and later the Los Al announcer), Chic Anderson (hired by Santa Anita after they let Gilligan go; he didn't really gel here and eventually left for NYRA), Dave Johnson (picked up by Santa Anita in 1978 after Anderson left for NY; left after 1984 winter season and was replaced by Trevor), and Jim Byers (who backed up Johnson and then was hired as the Hollywood Park announcer after Buchdahl; also called Los Al harness).

Thanks, I thought I remember Dave Johnson at SA, but I did some brief research and could not find any evidence of that, figured I wasn't recalling things correctly. I thought Joe Alto called Los Al harness.
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Old 07-27-2022, 07:51 PM   #112
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Thanks, I thought I remember Dave Johnson at SA, but I did some brief research and could not find any evidence of that, figured I wasn't recalling things correctly. I thought Joe Alto called Los Al harness.
Dave Johnson's greatest moment at Santa Anita:

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Old 07-27-2022, 09:24 PM   #113
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Every time I hear Dave Johnson's voice for that era I hear Spectacular Bid and Flying Paster. As a rat on a budget then I always bet on Paster and lost.
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Old 07-27-2022, 09:36 PM   #114
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Travis Stone should be calling this meet.
Would be kind of weird hearing his voice doing Saratoga imo but good choice no doubt
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Old 07-27-2022, 11:26 PM   #115
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As I recall, Buchdahl was the announcer at Oak Tree and started very, very young in the mid-1970's. He also backed up Harry Henson at Hollywood Park. At the time, SA and Hollywood very much saw themselves as competitors, and around Fall 1982, Hollywood Park fired Henson and offered the job to Buchdahl, who then worked the 1982 Oak Tree season while Oak Tree looked for a new announcer. They found what they were looking for in a young announcer from South Africa named Trevor Denman, who came in to work the 1983 Oak Tree meeting and the rest was history.

But Marje Everett (the owner of Hollywood Park at the time), I guess, decided she didn't like Buchdahl so well and replaced him with Jim Byers. After that, Buchdahl has worked on and off as a racecaller but never on as big a stage as he had at Oak Tree and Hollywood Park (he called several of John Henry's races, for instance, and Landaluce's last two starts).

FWIW, I remember Santa Anita featured Buchdahl on the interview program it used to run on KDOC-56 locally sometime in the late 1980's, and he said he actually found day-to-day race calling something of a grind, though he missed calling the really big races. So maybe that has something to do with him not having a long-term gig as a racecaller- you really have to love the day to day grind.
HOLLYWOOD PARK DID NOT FIRE HARRY HENSON
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Old 07-28-2022, 02:29 AM   #116
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HOLLYWOOD PARK DID NOT FIRE HARRY HENSON
Yes, Vic, Marje Everett definitely did fire Henson, at least in the sense that he was "involuntarily retired". At the time, my family was quite friendly with Jim Healy, who had his radio show on KLAC (at the time) and who was close to Everett, so we heard the full story. Everett got it in her head that the track needed a "fresh voice", and basically forced him out after the 1982 summer meet. It may have been announced as a retirement, but Everett had told him he had to go. He still wanted to call races and he kept working at Del Mar in 1982 and 1983. He was apparently extremely pissed at Everett about this.

(BTW, this wasn't the first conflict between Everett and Henson: Everett also had significant disputes with Henson when her father was running the tracks in Chicago. This is talked about in Phil Georgeff's biography, because Everett's dispute with Henson in Chicago led to Georgeff getting the job at Arlington Park.)

When RD Hubbard later took over the track, he hated Marje Everett too (he had waged a years long proxy fight to force her out because he thought she was running the track into the ground). One of the things he did to poke Marje in the eye was naming a race after Harry Henson, which is how we got the Harry Henson Stakes which you called a number of renewals of.

So yes, Harry was, shall we say, let go by Hollywood Park after calling the races there for 24 years and attaining iconic status.
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Old 07-28-2022, 11:33 AM   #117
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Yes, Vic, Marje Everett definitely did fire Henson, at least in the sense that he was "involuntarily retired". At the time, my family was quite friendly with Jim Healy, who had his radio show on KLAC (at the time) and who was close to Everett, so we heard the full story. Everett got it in her head that the track needed a "fresh voice", and basically forced him out after the 1982 summer meet. It may have been announced as a retirement, but Everett had told him he had to go. He still wanted to call races and he kept working at Del Mar in 1982 and 1983. He was apparently extremely pissed at Everett about this.

(BTW, this wasn't the first conflict between Everett and Henson: Everett also had significant disputes with Henson when her father was running the tracks in Chicago. This is talked about in Phil Georgeff's biography, because Everett's dispute with Henson in Chicago led to Georgeff getting the job at Arlington Park.)

When RD Hubbard later took over the track, he hated Marje Everett too (he had waged a years long proxy fight to force her out because he thought she was running the track into the ground). One of the things he did to poke Marje in the eye was naming a race after Harry Henson, which is how we got the Harry Henson Stakes which you called a number of renewals of.

So yes, Harry was, shall we say, let go by Hollywood Park after calling the races there for 24 years and attaining iconic status.
Starting in 1985 I would drive back and forth across the Country to various jobs. I always made it a point, even if it was well out of my way, to go through El Paso so I could visit Harry. Without his help I may have never made it as an announcer.

He never made it sound as though he had been forced out. I do know his eyesight was badly failing. He hated sounding lost, especially for races run at dusk. The lighting at HP was terrible then and frankly never got any better.

I loved everything about Friday night racing there except for the lights. Especially when they ran on the turf. Every silk looked brown when they were running into the far turn.

I know Jim Healy and Marge were very close. But I'm sure you'll agree Healy never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I'll NEVER concede that Harry was fired.
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Old 07-28-2022, 11:46 AM   #118
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Starting in 1985 I would drive back and forth across the Country to various jobs. I always made it a point, even if it was well out of my way, to go through El Paso so I could visit Harry. Without his help I may have never made it as an announcer.

He never made it sound as though he had been forced out. I do know his eyesight was badly failing. He hated sounding lost, especially for races run at dusk. The lighting at HP was terrible then and frankly never got any better.

I loved everything about Friday night racing there except for the lights. Especially when they ran on the turf. Every silk looked brown when they were running into the far turn.

I know Jim Healy and Marge were very close. But I'm sure you'll agree Healy never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I'll NEVER concede that Harry was fired.
One thing I agree with you on here was Hollywood Park's lighting. I never understood it- horses running in and out of the darkness. Compared to most tracks that run at night, it was just awful. Badly designed.
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Old 07-28-2022, 03:11 PM   #119
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Race 4 Thursday Saratoga. John didn’t see the 3 passing the 6 until he went by.
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Old 07-28-2022, 03:18 PM   #120
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Jim Healy, I though he was about as funny as a heart attack. Of course my opinion was in the minority as he was on the air for a long time.
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