Anglea Hermann named Golden Gate announcer

[Light]

Originally Posted by SandyW

The 8th race at Golden Gate, she did not see or call the 1 down on the rail as the winner until after the race. This girl is very light on experience and needs a lot of work.

That call was so bad I feel bad for her.

[KidCruz]

I think she deserves time to improve and expect that she will.

A lot of race callers at the major tracks right now like to use their judgement to determine how horses are looking, particularly Frank M and Aiello at GP. Phrasing like "Horse 1 is loaded," "Horse 1 is doing it comfortably" "Horse 1 calls it a day" etc.

It sounds like she is going out of her way to do this also and my opinion as a viewer is that she would be better off just giving us a straight forward call of the horses and their positions. Trying to guess which 10kN2L claimer in 4th place is ready to pounce is not worth even trying.

[forced89]

At first blush I don't like her but agree that she needs to be given time. None of us were perfect the first day on the job.

[Stoleitbreezing]

I'm not a big fan of hers either. I could live with the mistakes, at least at first, but her voice and how she calls the race are not pleasing to me.

She doesn't have the voice that would make me want to sit through an entire card. For lack of a better term, her voice strikes me as more "teacher voice" or "mom" than "Race Caller" voice.

I did get a chance to hear Dawn Lupul call Standardbred and I think Throughbred races at Woodbine awhile back and I actually enjoyed her calls. She was descriptive and also had the right urgency in her voice when it called for it.

[salty]

I think everyone knows they can push the mute button if they don't like her. The thread is about her and her job is to call races. Out of curiosity I watched all of yesterday's races. One race when the gate opened (6 or 7) she says Go. Yes Go no exclamation point. She doesn't have a very energizing voice, not one stretch call was even slightly exciting. Calling out positions early in the race are seriously confusing. She threw in so much description about the predicaments that the horses were in that they get halfway through the race before she finishes calling off first to last. Imagine what happens on a day that may have full fields? But yeah race 8 sure did have a hectic stretch run

Im not saying anything about whether she should have the job or not, just my thoughts on where she's at now. Rough

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[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by salty

.... She doesn't have a very energizing voice, not one stretch call was even slightly exciting. ...

I don't watch enough GG races to really have a strong opinion if I were so inclined, but I agree with a few of your observations. I generally like the style she's going for, but most of the calls are anything but symphonic. You can't really manufacture excitement, but you can sure stifle it through lack of contrast when you never bring your listeners down a bit in anticipation of a crescendo. I noticed a few calls the last couple of days where she seemed more deliberately methodical in simply reporting and I think you really need to be able to do that very well if you are going to effectively grab the listener's attention with commentary in the call or a timely observation. It can't all be poetry or it turns into improv jazz or something and even if you can't have a hook to keep us focused, you still need structure.

[AlBundy33]

Originally Posted by johnhannibalsmith

I don't watch enough GG races to really have a strong opinion if I were so inclined, but I agree with a few of your observations. I generally like the style she's going for, but most of the calls are anything but symphonic. You can't really manufacture excitement, but you can sure stifle it through lack of contrast when you never bring your listeners down a bit in anticipation of a crescendo. I noticed a few calls the last couple of days where she seemed more deliberately methodical in simply reporting and I think you really need to be able to do that very well if you are going to effectively grab the listener's attention with commentary in the call or a timely observation. It can't all be poetry or it turns into improv jazz or something and even if you can't have a hook to keep us focused, you still need structure.

Unless your name is Larry Lederman, Frank Mirahmadi and possibly Robin Burns. Not the add the recently retired Tom Durkin and Dan Loiselle.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by AlBundy33

Unless your name is Larry Lederman, Frank Mirahmadi and possibly Robin Burns. Not the add the recently retired Tom Durkin and Dan Loiselle.

That's really unfair to Durkin. I wasn't a fan but his calls had plenty of structure and he made sure he gave you the basics of order and positions along with his commentary.

Miramahdi too.

[AlBundy33]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

That's really unfair to Durkin. I wasn't a fan but his calls had plenty of structure and he made sure he gave you the basics of order and positions along with his commentary.

Miramahdi too.

I think you misunderstood my post. No one is a bigger fan of Durkin and Mirahmadi than me. That what makes them great, because the have the ability to ad lib and come up with great words, with a bit of humor thrown in from time to time.

When it comes to Durkin, there is only one #1 and there is no number 2.

The one I was probably being truly unfair (not intentionally) was Angela Hermann. If only she still hasn't called a total of 100 races, where the guys I listed are well into the six figures between them in race calls.

[SuperPickle]

I think something people are forgetting when people criticize Angela or Matt Dinerman is we don't have a lot of bench strength.

There's not a ton of announcers out there and there's certainly not a lot of young up and comers. I think Angela deserves a ton of credit for taking the job and trying to become an announcer.

Remember 20 years almost every track had a dedicated backup announcer. Some even had three. Now with the exception of NYRA it's who ever is around. Santa Anita uses the guy from Los Al. Gulfstream uses the Pompano guy. etc.

Earlier this year Portland Meadows went two days with no announcer because the guy was sick.

I don't think people are coming at this issue with perspective there's not enough bodies for the seats.

I keep waiting for the first racino to going annoucerless. My hunch is at this point the position only exists in some places because of liability. That if there's an accident or a horse going the wrong way they need a person to alert everyone.

[chenoa]

Wouldn't that be something if Dawn Lupul ends up replacing her.

Only in Hollywood baby.

And for that matter, I think Dawn would do a bang up job.

[AlBundy33]

Originally Posted by SuperPickle

I think something people are forgetting when people criticize Angela or Matt Dinerman is we don't have a lot of bench strength.

There's not a ton of announcers out there and there's certainly not a lot of young up and comers. I think Angela deserves a ton of credit for taking the job and trying to become an announcer.

Remember 20 years almost every track had a dedicated backup announcer. Some even had three. Now with the exception of NYRA it's who ever is around. Santa Anita uses the guy from Los Al. Gulfstream uses the Pompano guy. etc.

Earlier this year Portland Meadows went two days with no announcer because the guy was sick.

I don't think people are coming at this issue with perspective there's not enough bodies for the seats.

I keep waiting for the first racino to going annoucerless. My hunch is at this point the position only exists in some places because of liability. That if there's an accident or a horse going the wrong way they need a person to alert everyone.

Wait until Burgart, Grunder, Denman, Keith Jones and John Curran hang up the binoculars. In fact, one of the all time greats is calling at Fort Erie this season.

[Shemp Howard]

I think she stinks.

[jballscalls]

Originally Posted by SuperPickle

Earlier this year Portland Meadows went two days with no announcer because the guy was sick.

I filled in for a day after the quiet day at PM and most people said they preferred the person from the day before

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by johnhannibalsmith

I don't watch enough GG races to really have a strong opinion if I were so inclined, but I agree with a few of your observations. I generally like the style she's going for, but most of the calls are anything but symphonic. You can't really manufacture excitement, but you can sure stifle it through lack of contrast when you never bring your listeners down a bit in anticipation of a crescendo. I noticed a few calls the last couple of days where she seemed more deliberately methodical in simply reporting and I think you really need to be able to do that very well if you are going to effectively grab the listener's attention with commentary in the call or a timely observation. It can't all be poetry or it turns into improv jazz or something and even if you can't have a hook to keep us focused, you still need structure.

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