Trevor Denman

[NoCarolinaTony]

Yes Mystiques Approval vs Miesques Approval for one.

NC Tony

[Ill-bred]

I\'m a huge Trevor fan.

And I can honestly say this was the worst I\'ve ever heard him. It sounded like nerves to me, and then the negative energy fed off itself. Certainly not what I expected from arguably the best announcer in America.

But he did rally and he called the Classic very well.

Dave Johnson\'s West Virginia Derby call remains BY FAR the worst call of the year.

[brokerstip]

\"Dave Johnson was doing thi in the early 70\'s\"

NCT,

With all respect, DJ has called races much much later than the 1970\"s.

He definitely picked up TD\'s habit of calling horses by cap and silk color.
TD does that very smoothly day to day. DJ\'s calls were more methodical. Not as natural as his \"Down the Stretch they come...\"

As Cervantes wrote (or maybe the soundtrack says in Man of La Manch) \"To each his Ducinea....that he alone may find....a racecaller with a voice pure who isn\'t blind....\"

 I primarily play West Coast tracks from an East Coast location. I hear him almost every day during the meets he racecalls. He is fine by me.

Clown, you are hilarious.

Bob

[richiebee]

Enough already with Trevor.

I\'d rather talk about:

Lanfranco Dettori-- the only rider to win the BC Turf 3 times (Mick Kinane and
Jose Santos have each won 2). How great would it be to see this fella ride a
winter month in Florida or California? (Don\'t know if he could make lower US
weights).

Todd Pletcher--how does his 0/17 compare to Zito not hitting the board with any
one of his 5 Derby starters in \'05?

The 07 Breeders Cup-- 354 days to go. Should be a fascinating Cup logistically
in that there are very few quality hotels in the area of Monmouth Park. I predict
that the 07 Cup at Monmouth, if it draws 50,000 fans, will be followed by one of
the greatest traffic jams in the history of the Garden State.

The 08 Breeders Cup-- According to BloodHorse, Churchill is already being given
consideration to host the 08 Cup, I guess based on good attendance and handle
figures from the 06 edition. This means the track maintenance guys have two
years to figure out how to maintain a track without a pronounced bias.

Polytrack--the Sunday NY Post ran a picture of Javier Castellano covering up on
the track and Pine Island cartwheeling after her catastrophic breakdown; in the
picture, you can unfortunately see the extent of the damage to her shredded
ankle. If it is proven that Polytrack will eliminate or greatly reduce injuries
such as this, INSTALL IT NOW, EVERYWHERE, old curmudgeons like me be damned.

Keeneland apparently had a record meet, handle- wise, proving that horseplayers
as well as horsemen are embracing the synthetic surface

[Millennium3]

Denman & Durkin suffer from the same disease: Race Caller Delusions of Grandeur Syndrome. Common among race caller megalomaniacs, it makes them \"script\" their race calls days or weeks ahead of the actual running of the race itself. Race Caller Delusions of Grandeur Syndrome is more than reliance on a bank of commonly used phrases - it rests on the idea that the race caller is THE most important thing about any horse race. Who knew John Gaines had it in mind to create the Breeders Cup primarily as a showcase for egomaniacal race callers???

\"D & D\" are profoundly aware of the air time big races & their endless replays get. So they decide in advance how THEY think THEY should sound, so viewers will talk about nothing but THE RACE CALL. The reason Chic Anderson\'s call of the 1973 Belomont Stakes stands out is because it WASN\'T scripted. It was organic. He was as awestruck as everbody watching it and that\'s what came through in his call that day. These two \"best announcers\" (and that\'s really debateable) want the recognition of a call like Anderson\'s but miss the point on why it was great.


Denman screwed up because the races weren\'t run according to the script he laid out in his head weeks beforehand. And he came off looking like a hack becasue of it. Durkin has suffered form this too, many times. I\'ve actually heard that Durkin literally writes down the phrase he\'s going to say at a given point in a prticular race (exactly like a hackneyed playwright trying to \"direct his play from the page\"), regardless of whether it\'s appropriate. He & Denman never want us to forget: the horse race is really all about their race calls (i.e., them).

[Ill-bred]

Millennium-

Great call on the pre-scripted stuff. I have noticed that too, and it is lame.

Some of these announcers clearly rehearse what they\'re goign to say when Horse X wins the race.

[flushedstraight]

Millennium3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Denman screwed up because the races weren\'t run
> according to the script he laid out in his head
> weeks beforehand. And he came off looking like a
> hack becasue of it.


Good point. Maybe this explains why he wasn\'t focused on the golden rail where a few of these explosive winners that he missed were buried.

[Holy Bull]

New to this forum.  So hello all.

Trevor is way too predictable.  Same lines all the time and he missed quite a bit.

I will admit I enjoy his race calls, but not on the biggest days of the year.  Thankfully we still get Tom D for the Triple Crown.

[Holy Bull]

Couldn\'t this be confused by good preparation on their part as well?

[miff]

Denman is normally ok. I think he was very nervous and it showed. Give him a mulligan.

[jbelfior]

Would have loved to hear Durkin\'s call of the Classic.....and there goes BERNARDINI with a powerful 5 wide move on the outside...and BERNARDINI has taken the lead...BROTHER DEREK battles on at the rail...PREMIUM TAP (Denman never mentioned him) in with a chance....and here comes INVASOR gobbling up ground with powerful strides...BERNARDINI, Javier Castellano pleading for more......INVASOR, a powerful surge and... INVASOR wins it under a masterful ride by Fernando Jara, BERNARDINI, gallant in defeat, was second, and PREMIUM TAP was 3rd.  



Good Luck,
Joe B.

[Holy Bull]

perfect durkin call right there

[MO]

Performing on a \"world wide stage\" is no easy task no matter who or how good you are.

As my teacher the late, great James F. Burke used to say: \"People don\'t come to hear you perform. They come to hear you screw up\". All this Trevor bashing is just sour grapes on the part of those who wish they had his talent, job and income.

So, now, what did you think of The All-Star Buglers?

[colin]

In general, I agree with you and I love Trevor Denman. People do like to shoot down others because they are jealous. That being said, it is hard for me to believe what a bad day Trevor had. One thing I wonder is about the location of the race callers booth at Churchill and how that might have thrown Trevor off. Makes you appreciate Tom Durkin as he called races from many different racetracks and his calls blew Trevor off the map. Hopefully, this will end the criticism of Durkin whose stock had to rise after Saturday. E

[dodie]

Well, if we aren\'t going to talk sheet handicappin\', I guess this is as good a thread as any.
  I\'ve come to a revelation reading this thread.
1.  I\'d rather have Tom Durkin call the big ones.  \"And Arazi runs right by them\" has to be ranked number two after \"Secretariat is moving like a tremendous machine\" when it comes to memorable, unscripted, heart felf,awe inspired (not awe inspiring) race calls.  Durkin was a theater major; he knows how to rise to the occasion, even if the ocassion doesn\'t necessarily always merit it.
2.  Day to day, Trevor is the best.  When its a relatively short field, and he knows the horses, his comments about a horse being \"live\" or \"dead\" as the race unfolds are usually \"spot on.\"
  In any event, Trevor stumbled Saturday.  It was a rather surreal experience to be watching Pine Island stumble, then go to ground just as she fell out of the ESPN pan shot.  I thought I was imagining it when I didn\'t hear Trevor say anything.  And, needless to say, he completely missed Calvin Bo-RAIL on Street Sense.  Any midwestern player knows that any horse moving on the rail probably belongs to Calvin.  (Rockomundo in the Arky Derby, anyone?)