Dirkins call on Forever Together
 

That call would have been 1000 times for suspect compared to VS's if Dirkin would of been the horse's jockey's agent.

Just shows what a irrelevent charge levied against him.

I would agree if I understood a word you said.:zz:

He called her a winner before the line and the inside horse came back and fought her right down to the line, really close at the end.

Reminded me of a John Sterling homerun call a bit.....almost blew it.

It's Durkin.

While he appears to be quite educated otherwise, poor Tom is as clueless as the greenest bug boy when it comes to identifying setups/race dynamics. If you just had his audio to work with, more often than not, you wouldn't have a clue what your horse was doing in a particular race OR whether you had a chance to win before he announced the final order.

On the one hand, we have dinosaurs like Durkin. On the other, we have the present prototype, Vic Stauffer, who, apparently, given his comments in the takedown thread, isn't exactly at the skill level we once thought. (I needn't mention the stumbling mumbler, Denman --- if he only had a lisp, it would be absolutely unprecedented.)

In a different planet, where dinosaurs are extinct, we have Trakus. There's a certain pleasure to being able to CORRECTLY follow your horses around the tract, it's flat out exciting, as you can over at WO, for example. Of course, some prefer Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. :rolleyes:

the race caller
 

I enjoy listening to race Callers during the race, it adds drama, no matter what it is. My beef really is in "wire calls" when Stewards post "Official" far too quickly and then do not post the wire photo for anyone to really see.

For those who don't like the "caller" drama, I would just suggest you turn off your volume. ...and if you are at the track, bring an iPod and play some music during the race to offset the Race Caller's voice. ;)

Calling a horse race is far more difficult than it may appear. All told Durkin is one of the very best if not the best. That much is becomes easier to realize when you have to listen to some guys at second and third tier tracks who can't pronounce names correctly let alone call the right horses. All that said I do agree with your take re Trakus. Be nice to have that at every track.

why other tracks don't have trakus?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

It's expensive to install and then maintain on a daily basis. And it's really hard to accurately justify what the added value of such an installation would provide.

Trackus is probably more of an "industry" purchase than an individual racetrack purchase... or perhaps Equibase? I think there's a future in the technology, its the recipe which remains uncertain.