Larry Collmus on calling American Pharoah’s Triple Crown victory

Belmont announcer, and Maryland native, Larry Collmus found himself narrating history last Saturday when American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown. The Washington Times talked with him about preparing for such a moment, his journey from Maryland’s small tracks — starting in 1985 at Bowie Race Track — and how he feels to be involved in such an historical moment.

Q. Knowing history was on the line, when and how did you begin to prepare for the Belmont call?

A. Well, actually, you can go back a little bit on that because there was a possibility of that happening three years ago with I’ll Have Another before he scratched out of the Belmont. So, after he had won the Preakness back then, I started thinking about what I might want to say when a horse finally won the Triple Crown and I got to call it. Pretty much, I guess, started then. Obviously, we thought about it again last year with California Chrome and I had sort of had the same idea of what I thought would have been right for the moment and kind of just had to change the math to “the 37 year wait is over” for this year’s version with American Pharoah.

Q. What did you think were the important points for your call should American Pharoah win?

A. I thought about it quite a bit, and I talked to some other people whose opinions that I respect. I thought what I ended up saying in the call, was what everyone was feeling; there wasn’t any need to get too flowery. It was more of the whole idea we waited 37 years and this horse was finally the one we have been waiting for. The fact that he won the Triple Crown would be the exclamation point at the end of the call. That’s kind of how I planned it out if he had won the way he did, which was making it a no-doubt win. Obviously, if it was going to be close, then we had to make adjustments. I thought of a few other things. When they turned for home, I thought, “Makes his run for glory” was good and I was able to do that. You hate to say things are scripted, but at the same time you want to be prepared for such a moment like that. You don’t want to come across as not saying the right thing for that moment.

Q. Did you listen to prior calls of Triple Crown victories as part of your preparation?

A. Absolutely. In the week leading up, watched Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed several times. I also watched the near misses. The ones that got beat in the Belmont. I watched a lot of those calls as well. Just to impression myself as to how it was handled in the past and to get into that correct frame of mind as to what that situation was like at the time. There was a lot of replaying of those races on my computer.

Q. Were people in your family into horse racing?

A. Not really into horse racing. But, my father was the guy that installed and operated the sound system at some of the tracks in Maryland. That’s how I got involved in racing. I went to work with him in the summer when he was doing the Maryland State Fair in Timonium, and he was setting up the different exhibits around the fair end of things and pretty much had me monitor the racetrack and make sure the sound was OK and call him if something was wrong. Being at the track and being up in the press box where the announcer was, I became totally fascinated by the whole racing thing. I started to watch replay shows —- back then there was no simulcasting — there was a weekly replay show on ESPN and I would watch that. I would really get into the different announcers. I had an interest in doing that. I talked to some people up in the press box about how I should start getting involved in that, and they found a room for me at different tracks in Maryland that I would call races into a tape recorder and start practicing over and over again until I got good enough to do it over the microphone. I was able to call my first race exactly 30 years and one day before I called the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

Q. Were you nervous when you started calling races as an 18 year old?

A. It’s such a long time ago. I just remember being obviously very nervous because this was the first time I had done it for real. I had probably practiced calling races into a tape recorder maybe 500 times or something to that effect. That was the first time people would hear me over the microphone, I was only 18 years old, so, obviously I was a little bit on the nervous side. I was just happy I had gotten through it.

Q. Do you still get nervous now, or is that the wrong word for when history at the Belmont is on the line?

A. It’s hard not to be nervous for a situation like that. If you think about it, here’s a moment that everyone has been waiting for. Everyone in the horse racing industry and beyond, has been waiting to happen and you’re going to be the guy that gets to narrate that. The last thing you want to do is mess it up. There is a high amount of pressure involved; an intense amount of pressure and that leads to being nervous. You have to be able to try and control that. For the first mile of that mile-and-a-half race, I made sure I was deliberate and as low-key as I could be. That was sort of to keep myself in check from getting completely over the top by the time they got to the top of the stretch.

Q. Taking over for longtime NBC and NYRA announcer Tom Durkin is a large task. You’ve done it twice, first with NBC, this year with NYRA. Do you think about who you are replacing or are you more concerned with just doing what you do?

A. Tom, obviously is an absolute legend in our field. I listened to so many of his calls over the years and there were so many terrific ones. He was a very tough act to follow. I’ve tried my best to be myself and not to try to sound like Tom, and do my own thing. At the same time, I’m sure a lot of the things Tom has used in his calls have crept into mine because you hear so many, and subconsciously it’s going to come into your own race calls. I definitely knew what I was up against as far as being his successor. You can never replace Tom, you can just be the next guy. … We do text back and forth now and then. He did send a nice text message to me Tuesday after the Belmont telling me he liked my call. That was nice to see.

Q. Durkin was notorious for his anger when he felt he erred during a call and had the dented laptop and walls to prove it. What’s your reaction if you make a mistake or don’t make the call in the manner you would have preferred?

A. That’s sort of changed over the years. When I was younger, I would really get mad. Really get upset. There are holes in the walls of the announcer’s booth at Suffolk Downs to prove that. As the years have gone on, do I still beat myself up? You better believe it. I get angry. I try to control it, but I’ll slam the desk. Yell at myself. Get upset. But, I’m quicker to recover from it now [laughs]. I would say after 10 minutes and the horses are ready to come on the track for the next race, I’m over it because there’s a new race to come. Luckily for the major calls that I’ve had to make, there hasn’t been a serious hiccup because I think it would be a lot tougher to get over than the third race on a Thursday afternoon. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having an angry moment after you mess up. It means you care.

Q. What would the younger you — the person speaking into that recorder — think of this version who ended up calling the first Triple Crown winner in almost 40 years, does national calls and is the voice of NYRA meets?

A. I think the younger me would be blown away by the fact that this has all happened. When I first started in the game, it was at that local level in Maryland and I thought that maybe one day I could be an announcer at some track, somewhere, and I’d be happy with that. But I would have never imagined that I would one, get to call at these tracks that I’ve been able to call at — the New York Racing Association, Gulfstream [Park] and all the other ones before them — but I would have never even imagined in my wildest dreams that I would, one, work for NBC, and two get to call a horse winning the Triple Crown as both the track announcer and the network announcer. It’s just unfathomable. I’m just completely blown away by the whole thing.