Trevor Denman is heads and shoulders above anyone else in the business if you want insight into how a race is being run, who's in trouble, where the danger is coming from.

Tom Durkin is the Harry Henson of the east - he tells you where the horses are (somewhat inaccurately - but I assign that to age), along the rail , 2 lengths back, etc., but little else.

Murray Johnson, and the Australian callers are very good.

Vic is just as good or better than Trevor with the insight.

They all pale in comparison to Richard Grunder.

Vic is head and shoulders above Denman. Frankly, I don't know how Denman gets so many big gigs. Johnson is much better than him, but Durkin is easily still the tops IMO.

Yeah, because getting the names right is so over rated.

... and David Raphael as well as the current race caller at She Tin / Happy Valley (whose name I blanked out on). :wf

Tom Durkin is very old school. That style left SoCal 20 years ago when Trevor came to town. Vic and the new crop have all adopted Trevor's style of commentary. They are very good, but I'm partial to Trevor because he introduced the style of letting you know how the race is being run to this country. Watching international racing, I see they all call races in this style overseas.

When Durkin retires, and New Yawkers move into the modern era, boy are they in for a shock. They're like my father-in-law who use to say "I don't need no cable tv, rabbit ears are just fine!". Before that it was "This 1-speaker am radio sounds just fine. Who needs stereo?"

Yeah, New Yorkers are really known for being behind the times. :rolleyes:

Mark Johnson from CD is the best announcer I have ever heard. He makes the stretch calls very dramatic.

Being from the New York, I just pray to God that when Durkin does retire Denman comes nowhere near the East coast. I could give you a list of guys I would rather have doing the NYRA races AD (after Durkin).
I respect you opinion, but I personally think Denman is very overated and I also find him very annoying. As far as I'm concerned he isn't even the best caller on the left coast.

Please not Denman. I feel sorry for you if he's the poster boy for California race calling. But to each his own..

kurt becker..denman blew it when he started voice overs for 'jockeys'

That's mighty hard to do when you've never read a fraction in your life.

You clearly don't understand. That is exactly what I'm trying to say. If you rely on Durkin to tell you "Oh! the half in '46" - that doesn't tell you a damn thing - maidens may run the half in 46; the track plays differently day to day.
You need to know who is right behind, tugging on the reins, looking for room, full of run etc. Who's running easily, who is being pushed, who is all out. Telling you what happened is useless. Tell me what's about to happen.

You never know you are behind the times until you are caught up with the times. Is this my father-in-law?

I really think John Dooley (Arlington/Fairgrounds) is a very underated track announcer. His calls are accurate and pleasant to listen to. Not too much fluff but gets excited when he should.

:zz:

You forgot to mention that we also need to know who.....would....have....to.....sprout......WINGS. ....to catch so and so.
:rolleyes:

In my opinion, Denman is one of the worst announcers in the sport.

Durkin was fantastic in the 80s and 90s, and I still like him, but he has lost a bit over the last ten years or so. I like Dooley the best now, but the CD guy is really good too.

So if you bet on a frontrunner in a claiming race and the quarter has gone 21 flat and the half 43, you don't want to know that your horse is almost certain to back up in the stretch? Or if you bet the closer in the same race, you don't want to know that the same fractions are setting your horse up for a big run?

We can see a horse during a race and whether the rider is sitting still or pushing the horse or whether the horse is getting a bad trip, but we can't always see the fractions. I suppose that information is useful when you are for some reason only hearing the race without watching it, but where does that really happen other than ATR or when TVG is on Sirius. While time is not everything, it can certainly give clues as to who is getting the best and worst of it that many, including me wish to know.

BTW, personally, I leave the east coast, west coast thing to Rappers.

This is correct. Denman is absolutely the best MUMBLER in the business presently. I can never understand what the **** he's saying, especially during the loading period where he low-talks in combination with the mumbling. I almost always mute the idiot. Johnson is another one that I mute. And it's not just about the accent, as I appreciate Wrona's calls very much.

Denman, Durkin, Johnson: these ****ers need to be out of the game. The present day race caller at least needs to have a clue about setups. These guys are about as bad as it gets when it comes to understanding races and moves within them.

I'm kind of neutral on the fractions, especially if you're watching the track feed.

However, Trevor Denman makes proclamations about what's going on that are wrong way too often. He tends to anticipate moves that don't occur, he'll shift his focus to a horse who he THINKS is making the winning move only to hang. Besides, and I'm recycling this joke, his street sense when noticing who's coming up the rail leaves something to be desired.

Tom Durkin may be past his prime but no one captures the moment in a big race the way he has for the last nearly 30 years. You'll never find a Trevor Denman call that's 1/2 as exciting as the 2002 Test. Trevor would have s.hit the bed in the stretch of the 1998 Belmont and there's no way Trevor would have been able to illustrate for a wide audience what was going on in the 2004 Belmont. Not to mention that Durkin's call of the 2005 Derby was about as flawless a call as you're ever going to find.

On a daily basis he's not nearly as crisp as before, he's much more prone to error but Durkin's 2nd to none in my opinion.

NT