American Track Announcers From Days Gone By.

[Jeff P]

Dan Loiselle

Somebody not mentioned whose calls I really enjoyed.

Imo, if you're willing to spotlight a track announcer from Canada who retired in 2015 he would be the one.


-jp
.

[Ruffian1]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Did he call Hollywood Park Harness in the late 70's and early 80's?

I don’t know but he called harness in Md. before he came to Thoroughbreds.

[ucancallmemrlucky]

Originally Posted by Ruffian1

I don’t know but he called harness in Md. before he came to Thoroughbreds.

Started his career calling harness at Buffalo Raceway, replaced Max Robinson

[Hambletonian]

John Curran (Delaware Park)

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

Chicago's very own Phil Georgeff, who was the announcer when I first got intoduced to this game. Some of his race calls still echo in my mind even now.

"John HenREEEEE...The living legend!!!!"

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by wisconsin

Ross Morton was iconic at the old Gulfstream as well as Finger Lakes forever, and if you are counting harness callers, Jack E Lee.

Jack Lee...IMO the best Harness caller by a pole....Great set of pipes. He told a "story" of a race....

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

Aside from the obvious ones, Jack Lamarr (Philly Park) was a great listen. While his bread and butter calls were So and So is first, Whatshisname is second...and so on he'd once in a while throw out a gem like "...draws off under sunny skies and left handed urging..."

I thought former Philly Flyers Tv and Radio voice Gene Hart was a very good race announcer.
On the west coast, prior to Vic Stauffer's tenure, Jim Byers was also very good.

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by thespaah

Jim Byers was also very good.

Doesn't he still announce Lone Star?

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by Johnny V

Bob Weems.

He did Monmouth Park..
On a drizzly cool early June day in 1988, I had a "landscaper holiday"( rain kept us from working)...SO I jumped into the car and headed down to Monmouth. I got there and the fog rolled in.
By the middle of the card, the visibility had dropped to a couple hundred feet.
In one race, which started on the front stretch, Weems called the horses until the Clubhouse turn. Then he said "after that, you're on your own"...To this day, I cannot find a recording of this race call. Weems picked up the call as they came out of the fog at the head of the stretch. Never missed a beat.

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by Ruffian1

A lot of great memories and Ray Haight would probably need to be one of those as well.

But, once a trainer, I tried to block that noise out and watched the race and was able to see more by not listening to an announcer.
But for me, the one announcer when I watched races that I could not block out
was Robin Burns.
The funniest, most clever announcer I ever listened to.

Had a horse winning by 12 in the slop going long at Laurel named Milwawkee and he says at the 1/8 th pole, " By a dozen raw with a slide of slaw, It doesn't get any better than this, Ole Milwaukee... in front."

And, a horse named Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice that I had. He is coming to the 1/4 pole and going around 2 or 3 vying for the lead and he says, " and up on the outside it's Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice, here comes all four of them!"

The guy was incredible, and a great golfer as well. No matter what you shot, he would always beat you by one stroke. Lol.


Oh and Costy, "and up on the outside it's Piping Pier...coming on!"

Yeah..I like race callers that don't take everything so seriously. After all, they are in the entertainment business.

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by Dan Montilion

That guy at Keenland up to and including 1996 was damn good.

Very funny, Keeneland had no PA system until 1997.
Kurt Becker is one FINE announcer.

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

Dan Loiselle

Somebody not mentioned whose calls I really enjoyed.

Imo, if you're willing to spotlight a track announcer from Canada who retired in 2015 he would be the one.


-jp
.

Dan Loiselle. Veteran of over 55,000 races. Retired in 2014

[thespaah]

Originally Posted by wisconsin

Doesn't he still announce Lone Star?

Im not sure.
John Lies was there. I don't think he is there anymore.
Yer gonna love this. I used to be part of the stat crew that worked home games for the AHL Charlotte Checkers.
My job was to record assists on goals. I had to record them on notes and make sure both home and away media got copies. So I always had the media notes for player names, and the names of attending media.
The Oklahoma City or Tulsa AHL club was the visitor. I look at the notes and I see "Radio play by play: Jim Byers".....Before warmups began, I had to ask...SO I went up and sat with Byers. I asked , "are you the same Jim Byers that is a race caller?"...He said he was. We had a nice chat for about 20 minutes. I brought up some of his calls from his Hollywood Park days.
I mentioned one which I still have on VCR tape to this day. The 1985 Californian. Precisionist vs Greinton. He remembered it well.

[Redbullsnation]

Originally Posted by thespaah

Very funny, Keeneland had no PA system until 1997.
Kurt Becker is one FINE announcer.

He's probably talking about Mike Battaglia who was the defacto track announcer (at least on TV).



He called Turfway until his retirement a few years back. GAINING GROUND still rings to my ears 😅


Obviously the King has to be Tom Durkin. I grew up watching the races on public access TV in NYC Cablevision so I get to see a lot of NYRA action (and any other NY-based tracks).


Trevor Denman isn't too far behind. Obviously called Santa Anita (and Fairplex Cali Fair meets) and still calls Del Mar to this day

[wisconsin]

Originally Posted by thespaah

Im not sure.
John Lies was there. I don't think he is there anymore.
Yer gonna love this. I used to be part of the stat crew that worked home games for the AHL Charlotte Checkers.
My job was to record assists on goals. I had to record them on notes and make sure both home and away media got copies. So I always had the media notes for player names, and the names of attending media.
The Oklahoma City or Tulsa AHL club was the visitor. I look at the notes and I see "Radio play by play: Jim Byers".....Before warmups began, I had to ask...SO I went up and sat with Byers. I asked , "are you the same Jim Byers that is a race caller?"...He said he was. We had a nice chat for about 20 minutes. I brought up some of his calls from his Hollywood Park days.
I mentioned one which I still have on VCR tape to this day. The 1985 Californian. Precisionist vs Greinton. He remembered it well.

He called Oaklawn after Vic was fired, then went back to Lone Star for the summer last year. When he went to hockey, he gave up his gig calling them at Remington.