Veteran racetrack announcer John G. Dooley, the voice of Arlington Park
throughout the 21st century and the man who also mans the microphones at
Louisiana’s Fair Grounds Race Course from November through March, was driving
back the 19 hours from New Orleans to his Chicago home base last month when his
eyes started playing tricks on him.
“It’s a little hard to describe but basically I started seeing something like
a red line developing in my field of vision,” Dooley said. “I’d rub my eyes or
blink thinking I was just tired from driving and that it would go away, but it
kept coming back.
“I had a little vacation booked where I was going to fly from Chicago to New
York to see my mother in Staten Island briefly, then fly on to Amsterdam and
eventually to Kiev for a five-day visit I’d been planning for some time, but my
eye kept bothering me so I went to an eye doctor to see what was wrong.
“The doctor told me I had a detached retina and would have to have surgery.
When I asked him if I could continue on my planned trip and have the surgery
done when I returned, he told me, ‘No, you have to have this done tonight or you
could go blind.’
“Naturally, I followed his advice, postponed my trip and had the surgery done
right away. Following my post surgery exam, he told me to come back and see him
again in three weeks, so I rescheduled my vacation and just got back to town
last week. If he had said he wanted to see me again in one week, I would have
canceled the whole trip to be on the safe side, but I went ahead with it and I’m
glad I did.
“I had a blast in Kiev,” Dooley continued. “I’ve always been a bit of a World
War II buff — I’ve been to Pearl Harbor and I’ve been to Normandy — but
there’s a museum in Kiev called the Museum of the Great Patriotic War that I’ve
always wanted to visit, and it turned out to be everything I expected it to be.
“Also, although the Germans pretty much destroyed Kiev during the War, there
is one historic cathedral built in the 11th century that remained intact. It’s
called St. Sophia’s and when I visited that and got a sense of all the things
that have taken place there over thousand years or so, it turned out to be
something of a revelation..
“Experiences like that help you put everything in perspective,” Dooley said.
“Why did my eye problem start developing the day after Fair Grounds completed
its season (March 27) and why did the time it’s going to take me to recover
allow me to be ready to call races again in time for Arlington’s opening day
(May 6)? It’s like God had the whole detached retina thing planned out for me at
this particular time in my life. It also helps me realize that this is the place
I’m supposed to be at this time in my life.
“I’m still recovering and I’ve still got a ways to go,” Dooley said, “but
I’ll be able to call the races on opening day at Arlington despite this setback.
In fact, I flew back from Amsterdam to Chicago on the morning of April 21,
stopped off at my condo long enough to unpack and change clothes, and was able
to fulfill a commitment to Arlington doing a seminar at Trackside Lockport that
same night. So I think everything is going to work out just fine.”