Vic Staufer

[Seattleallstar]

Durkin
John G

the best 2 in the game

Denman, and Stauffer battle for 3rd and 4th. Somewhere in between is Dave Johnson

Then below that is Luke K, Hoover at Keenland, Larry Colmus, Michael Wrona, Tony Calo

[Seattleallstar]

i think we are all in agreement that Battaglia sucks

Originally Posted by Seattleallstar

i think we are all in agreement that Battaglia sucks

That he does. I don't like VS either tho.

Originally Posted by Seattleallstar

i think we are all in agreement that Battaglia sucks

No argument here...aside from his annoying voice and cadence, he is another horrible reactor...horses rally passed other horses to the front before he even mentions them....

[Suffolk Shippers]

Originally Posted by Seattleallstar

i think we are all in agreement that Battaglia sucks

every race starts with "fooooooooooor the leaaaaaaaaaaad"

Originally Posted by oracle80

Joel putting Trevor ahead of Durkin is just plain foolish. Perhaps you don't realize this but Trevor fails to do a "little" thing thats called giving fractions. Now that may not seem like such a big deal, but every time Durkin has to interrupt his call to give a fraction it interrupts teh flow of his call and also causes him to have to start with a new cadence upon resuming the fractional call. Now look, if Durkin didn't have to interrupt his superlatives and adjectives with the fractional call(like every great race caller in history has done) I'm sure his calls could be every bit as "technical" as Trevors. fact is Trevor has always punked out and not called fractions so he can showboat with adjectives. hes about 1/10th the race caller that Durkin is.

I couldn't agree less, but that is your opinion and you're entitled to it..

..When I say technical, I am referring to everything except the glamorous voice and vivid adjectives or anything else that is cosmetic about the race call. A good technical race caller paints the best picture of how the race is unfolding...it takes great forecasting and handicapping ability and Denman is leaps and bounds better at it than Durkin....I've seen several races in New York where a jockey dropped his stick, or there was significant bumping, or a horse was closing from the clouds and Durkin never saw him....

..great example was this year's Wood Memorial..Durkin was so caught up on Keyed Entry and Bob and John walking home in that race that he didn't even mention ONE WORD about Jazil closing until after the wire he yelled "Jazil"...horrible...How can you miss a horse that closes from 20 lengths out of it?..I was hoping he would win to see how Durkin was going to wiggle out of it..LOL.

Denman understands the horses a lot more than Durkin and it shows in his race calls.....Howvere, I do prefer the class and power in Durkin's stretch calls.

As for the fractions, Denman will say them when he feels that they are relavent....Durkin thinks every first quarter is "blistering"..it's hilarious.

As a horse player, I guess I don't value a race caller telling me the fractions unless they matter...i.e. too fast or too slow...I have trained myself to get the fractions off the monitor because they are available to read a few seconds before Durkin says anything - thus he is being redundant half of the time he is saying the fractions anyway....I would rather an announcer be accurate with his call and be able to see things that are about to happen and communicate them fast - instead of reacting late like guys like Tom Durkin and Terry Wallace do most of the time....just my opinion...

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

I couldn't agree less, but that is your opinion and you're entitled to it..

..When I say technical, I am referring to everything except the glamorous voice and vivid adjectives or anything else that is cosmetic about the race call. A good technical race caller paints the best picture of how the race is unfolding...it takes great forecasting and handicapping ability and Denman is leaps and bounds better at it than Durkin....I've seen several races in New York where a jockey dropped his stick, or there was significant bumping, or a horse was closing from the clouds and Durkin never saw him....

..great example was this year's Wood Memorial..Durkin was so caught up on Keyed Entry and Bob and John walking home in that race that he didn't even mention ONE WORD about Jazil closing until after the wire he yelled "Jazil"...horrible...How can you miss a horse that closes from 20 lengths out of it?..I was hoping he would win to see how Durkin was going to wiggle out of it..LOL.

Denman understands the horses a lot more than Durkin and it shows in his race calls.....Howvere, I do prefer the class and power in Durkin's stretch calls.

As for the fractions, Denman will say them when he feels that they are relavent....Durkin thinks every first quarter is "blistering"..it's hilarious.

As a horse player, I guess I don't value a race caller telling me the fractions unless they matter...i.e. too fast or too slow...I have trained myself to get the fractions off the monitor because they are available to read a few seconds before Durkin says anything - thus he is being redundant half of the time he is saying the fractions anyway....I would rather an announcer be accurate with his call and be able to see things that are about to happen and communicate them fast - instead of reacting late like guys like Tom Durkin and Terry Wallace do most of the time....just my opinion...

Joel when Durkin came up full fledged simulcasting and in house tv screens were not in abundance. back then to accurately call a race for the majority of listeners you had to give fractions. And if you don't think working in fractions is a lot harder than saying "they're going every fast early" you are kidding yourself. I agree that with in house tv's everywhere and full fledged simulcasting all over the country that giving fractional times is not as important as it was, but Trevor has been calling here since the mid 80's and I can remember only getting the call and not the picture back then in college and screaming "why won't this foreign fruitcake give me the fractions?!! "

[Seattleallstar]

Durkin is the best, if anyone disputes this then I dont know anymore. He paints such a vivid picture and tells a story in his race calls, dont know anyone else who can do that.

Kent Desormeaux imploring Real Quiet
Rock of Gibraltar languishing in back
Jerry Bailey has St Liam In hand
War Emblem hes got another gear
Funny Cide the gutsy gelding

a picture is worth a thousand words, this photo is worth 5 million-- I mean whoa who else can come up with that

That's why this game is great...we all have opinions and we are all right...some like announcers for certain reasons and some like announcers for other reasons...I come from the new school of horse players and I prefer better technical race callers, and I will say this - the struggle of our industry right now is that we haven't been able to adapt and lure in the new school horse players of tomorrow...the NTRA and tracks have struggled miserably with marketing to the next generation of horse players, WHOM EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY.....we don't care about Durkin wasting time telling us fractions because we know that we can read them off the monitor 3 seconds before Durkin announces them....we just wish that Durkin wouldn't misslead people into thinking horses are running a "blistering" pace all of the time when they really are not...when Bishop Court Hill won the Carter wire-to-wire earlier this year, Durkin yelled "and he ran the first quarter in a blistering 22 and 1" and I was thinking to myself "What the hell is he talking about...this pace is VERY moderate for these kind of horses"...and sure enough, he drew away to win gate to wire....horrible call and it is because he doesn't understand racing as well as the likes of Denman, etc.....just my opinion..

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

I couldn't agree less, but that is your opinion and you're entitled to it..

..When I say technical, I am referring to everything except the glamorous voice and vivid adjectives or anything else that is cosmetic about the race call. A good technical race caller paints the best picture of how the race is unfolding...it takes great forecasting and handicapping ability and Denman is leaps and bounds better at it than Durkin....I've seen several races in New York where a jockey dropped his stick, or there was significant bumping, or a horse was closing from the clouds and Durkin never saw him....

..great example was this year's Wood Memorial..Durkin was so caught up on Keyed Entry and Bob and John walking home in that race that he didn't even mention ONE WORD about Jazil closing until after the wire he yelled "Jazil"...horrible...How can you miss a horse that closes from 20 lengths out of it?..I was hoping he would win to see how Durkin was going to wiggle out of it..LOL.

Denman understands the horses a lot more than Durkin and it shows in his race calls.....Howvere, I do prefer the class and power in Durkin's stretch calls.

As for the fractions, Denman will say them when he feels that they are relavent....Durkin thinks every first quarter is "blistering"..it's hilarious.

As a horse player, I guess I don't value a race caller telling me the fractions unless they matter...i.e. too fast or too slow...I have trained myself to get the fractions off the monitor because they are available to read a few seconds before Durkin says anything - thus he is being redundant half of the time he is saying the fractions anyway....I would rather an announcer be accurate with his call and be able to see things that are about to happen and communicate them fast - instead of reacting late like guys like Tom Durkin and Terry Wallace do most of the time....just my opinion...

I agree with you 100% - I could care less about the fractions. I pretty much can tell how fast they are going without someone telling me the fractions. Frantion time is pointless to me. I want someone to see something that I don't. Trevor can spot anything going on in the race better than any caller right now. Durkin's call in the Woodward was pretty bad. Not one word of Jazil until the race was over.

The best call I have ever heard was Vic's call last year when they were having an earthquake. If you didnt get to hear the call you are missing out. This call really shows Vic's brilliance as a race caller.

Originally Posted by eurobounce

I agree with you 100% - I could care less about the fractions. I pretty much can tell how fast they are going without someone telling me the fractions. Frantion time is pointless to me. I want someone to see something that I don't. Trevor can spot anything going on in the race better than any caller right now. Durkin's call in the Woodward was pretty bad. Not one word of Jazil until the race was over.

Yep..................

[Scav]

Originally Posted by eurobounce

I agree with you 100% - I could care less about the fractions. I pretty much can tell how fast they are going without someone telling me the fractions. Frantion time is pointless to me. I want someone to see something that I don't. Trevor can spot anything going on in the race better than any caller right now. Durkin's call in the Woodward was pretty bad. Not one word of Jazil until the race was over.

I have eyes for fractions, no need to hear it

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by eurobounce

Does anyone else get a kick out of him like I do. This dude was cracking me up over the weekend on TVG. Not too crazy about his picks but he is one funny dude.

I'm with you. I love Vic. He is very colorful and very entertaining. My two favorite announcers are Vic and Tom Durkin.

[disappearingdan_akaplaya]

i became fond of vic several years back when he called 1 race meet here in chicago@hawthorne just before he moved onto the big time........was very sad to see him go! i like dooley was well and some of his lines are very catchy like"shes charging faster than a little girl with daddys credit card" but at the same time other lines are very cheesey! wrona is my fav caller in the game, and my 2nd kevin goemmer(rip) passed away a couple of years ago unfortunately

[Scav]

Originally Posted by disappearingdan_akaplaya

i became fond of vic several years back when he called 1 race meet here in chicago@hawthorne just before he moved onto the big time........was very sad to see him go! i like dooley was well and some of his lines are very catchy like"shes charging faster than a little girl with daddys credit card" but at the same time other lines are very cheesey! wrona is my fav caller in the game, and my 2nd kevin goemmer(rip) passed away a couple of years ago unfortunately

Playa, have you heard him use that credit card line again, after the first time? I watch ALOT of Arlignton races and since that day that he used it, I HAVE NOT heard it again. I like that