Will the Crowd Be Going Crazy?

- Tom Durkin had the day off on Friday - a chance to rest his voice for the big day. It was that first Breeders Cup in 1984 that Durkin came into prominence; his call of the classic first Classic was a classic! Eight guest announcers from tracks around the country and one from England called a race each in an event that is apparently conducted each year before Breeders' Cup day. It was nice to hear Dave Johnson back at his old haunt, and a rousing contest at midstretch allowed him to unleash his signature ‘down the stretch they come’ with authority.

I felt a little bad for the announcers who got stuck with short fields and/or short-priced favorites winning like short-priced favorites; they might have been thinking ‘I came all the way here for this?’ Well maybe what they really came for was to all go out together and get trashed tonight. I don't think I'd want to be hanging around nine drunk track announcers; it would probably get pretty loud.

Larry Lederman called the second race. Lederman has been calling races at various tracks in New Jersey for many years, and is currently the race caller at Freehold Raceway, an afternoon harness track. Lederman is a riot. I haven’t heard him in a while so I don’t know if he still does this, but he used to at times do impersonations of other announcers during his calls. I remember him doing Trevor Denman on several occasions, as well as a hilarious Marshall Cassidy. He also did celebrity impersonations including Jackie Mason and Rodney Dangerfield.

I recall being at the Meadowlands one weeknight, and Lederman was calling the races from Atlantic City. It was a ding-dong battle down the stretch, and in the middle of his call, Lederman exclaimed “AND THE CROWD IS GOING CRAZY!” Knowing that there were probably 700 people in the crowd I just starting cracking up, even though I was going to lose. It was the funniest race I’ve ever seen....or heard, I guess I should say. Watching and listening to Lederman call the second on Friday, I recalled that line as they turned into the stretch (“Into the highway of heroes”), and I realized that if he used the same line in this race, it would have the same ironic effect. Though the crowd of 6,216 was around twice as much as you’d usually get on a Friday in October, that’s still a tiny audience in the vast canyon of the Belmont grandstand, and I’m sure there was as little electricity in the live audience as I imagine there was that night at Atlantic City years ago.

Hopefully, the crowd really will be going crazy on Saturday, if just to keep themselves warm. Based on Friday’s crowd, you can figure that there are at least 3,000 people in town for the big day, so a crowd of at least 11,000 seems assured. Beyond that, I don’t even want to guess. But I’m afraid, very afraid...

Trevor Denman called the feature race, the Grade 3 Nashua at a mile for three year olds. And the winner was Bluegrass Cat, a Storm Cat colt who was Todd Pletcher’s third winner of the day. Richard Dutrow had the nerve to actually pass him for the lead in the trainers standings when his Make My Dayjur won the third, so Pletcher just went out and won three. Bluegrass Cat is a half brother to Lord of the Game, a pre-entry for the Classic who did not get into the race.

Pletcher’s other two winners were both two year olds and both offspring of Unbridled’s Song. The first of his winners was My Golden Song in the 4th; he was 9-2 in the morning line but went off at 11-1, so you know there was as much of a chance I would’ve bet him as me donating to Libby Lewis’ legal fund. And he was an impressive winner to boot, exploding through a hole down inside to draw away and finishing up the seven furlongs in :12 4/5 for the last eighth. Then two races later, it was Magnificent Storm at 7-10 in her second start, first on the dirt.

Unbridled Song’s stud fee for 2006 was recently raised by $25K to $150,000. He took the 1995 Juvenile here at Belmont, beating Hennessy by a neck at 5-1, with Editor’s Note third, and favored Honour and Glory 4th.