Track announcer Larry Collmus has been tabbed to call the races at Gulfstream Park this winter. The 22-year veteran has been the
announcer at Suffolk Downs since 1992 and Monmouth Park since 1994.
“I’m very excited about becoming part of the Gulfstream Park team,” the
40-year-old Baltimore native said. “The opportunity to call the outstanding
races that Gulfstream offers is an announcer’s dream. It’s something I’m very
much looking forward to.”
Collmus began calling races at the tender age of 18 when Chick Lang Sr. took
him on as the back-up track announcer in Maryland. His first full-time
announcing job came at Birmingham Race Course in Alabama just two years later.
Since then, Collmus has called races at Golden Gate
Fields from 1988-91 and the Northern California fairs at Vallejo and Santa Rosa
as well as the Bay Meadows Fair from 1990-93. He has also been the race caller
at the past two Aqueduct winter meets.
Gulfstream’s meet begins January 3, 2007.
In related
news, John Imbriale, who retired as the New York Racing Association’s (NYRA)
back-up track announcer in 2005, will return to take over race calling at
Aqueduct’s upcoming winter meet in 2007.
“I am very excited about working back at Aqueduct,” he said. “I have a lot of
fond memories, and I look forward to seeing some old friends.”
Imbriale joined NYRA in 1979 after winning a contest for aspiring track
announcers. Part of the prize for that contest was a job in NYRA’s press office.
He eventually became the liaison for a television station that put on a weekly
Thoroughbred racing program starring late trainer Frank Wright and Charlsie
Cantey. Imbriale also was at Arlington Park for a time as a replacement for that
track’s legendary announcer Phil Georgeff.
NYRA’s regular track announcer, Tom Durkin, will continue to call races
through New Year’s Day, and Imbriale will pick up the reins when racing returns
to Aqueduct on January 4, 2007.