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Speaker 1: Breeder's Cup is headed to iconic Keenland coming up this

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Speaker 1: weekend two days November fourth and the fifth. Larry Colmus

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Speaker 1: will be on the call for NBC and he joins

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Speaker 1: us now, Larry, thanks for joining us the voice as

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Speaker 1: you get ready for this big moment. Any prep work,

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Speaker 1: not a whole lot of voice prep. I just want

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Speaker 1: to make sure that I'm feeling good, and I guess

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Speaker 1: a lot of water, you know, try to keep keep

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Speaker 1: myself hydrated. And but it's mostly most of the prep

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Speaker 1: work is is the memorization of the horses and all

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Speaker 1: that stuff. But as far as voice goes just kind

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Speaker 1: of hope for the best. You know, a lot of

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Speaker 1: us grow up wanting to be something, you know, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, an athlete, a musician. At what point did

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Speaker 1: you say I want to be an announcer, horse racing announcer.

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Speaker 1: It was very early, probably was about fourteen fifteen years

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Speaker 1: old old when I first got interested in horse racing.

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Speaker 1: I went up to the press boxes at the Maryland

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Speaker 1: Tracks because my father put in the sound system up there,

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Speaker 1: so I got to meet everyone, and you know, started

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Speaker 1: to do impressions of different racetrack announcers and one day,

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Speaker 1: decided to try to do it for real and got

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Speaker 1: a set of binoculars, a tape recorder and just started

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Speaker 1: practicing calling races. And when I was eighteen years old,

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Speaker 1: the general manager at Pimlico chick Lange heard me and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: you want to call one race a day over the mic.

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Speaker 1: And that's how it started. How nervous, oh, binoculars shaking

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Speaker 1: like crazy. I do remember the horse that won that

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Speaker 1: first race, Tiara's Flame was the name of the horse.

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Speaker 1: I don't remember much else other than the fact that

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Speaker 1: it was so glad when it was over. When you

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Speaker 1: say that you do impersonations, what are the different sounds

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Speaker 1: that you have with the announcers. Well, you have different

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Speaker 1: guys like Trevor Denman who used to call of the

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Speaker 1: races at Sanative and alcohols at del Mar's Field, Santa

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Speaker 1: on that way in the Santaid to handicap and they've

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Speaker 1: broken a perfect line. So but you know you've got

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Speaker 1: different guys like Dave Johnson's got on the stretch. They

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Speaker 1: come and you know, exciteable that but you know you

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Speaker 1: would listen to the different guys and like, I love this.

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Speaker 1: I love how there's so many different styles and different

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Speaker 1: ways and and so eventually, you know, you have all

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Speaker 1: those guys and they sort of mishmash into you, and

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Speaker 1: then you became you become your own guy. I love

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Speaker 1: the Dave Johnson call it just that's when you know, Okay,

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Speaker 1: pay attention, because now it just got serious and Downstan

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Speaker 1: they're like, oh my god, it's he actually trademarked that,

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, and that's why you never hear

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Speaker 1: anybody else say it. And it was a brilliant idea.

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Speaker 1: He's he's he's made some a good charitable money off

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Speaker 1: of that over the years and just a good dude.

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Speaker 1: And then that call is just legendary. Well he's sort

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Speaker 1: of the Michael Buffer then, because let's get ready to rumble.

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Speaker 1: He trademarked that as well. So right, yeah, congratulate him. Ever,

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Speaker 1: not been able to see the horses during a race, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: sure that happens. In fact, that happened in the twenty

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Speaker 1: eighteen Preakness that Justify one. It was dense fog the

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Speaker 1: entire race, and luckily the NBC directors and the camera

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Speaker 1: people kept getting me shots that I could see something

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Speaker 1: and just had to wait for you know, the shot

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Speaker 1: to the change so you could see where the horses were.

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Speaker 1: And I remember they were going around the turn in

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Speaker 1: the race and there was just nothing. They had nothing.

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Speaker 1: I just remembered saying something like, as they round the

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Speaker 1: far turned in the fog at Pimlico, they have run

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Speaker 1: six furlongs in one minute eleven point two five seconds,

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Speaker 1: and there they were again. You know, so he sort

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Speaker 1: of you had to kill a little time, but it

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Speaker 1: was it was a sea of fog, for sure. What

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Speaker 1: do you do with a photo finish right before it's

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Speaker 1: going to be a photo finish? In trying to predict

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Speaker 1: who might have won the race? So ideally you if

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Speaker 1: you have a great angle where your calling location is,

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Speaker 1: and they differ from place to place, But if you

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Speaker 1: have a really good angle, I just focus my eye

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Speaker 1: right on the finish line and just see what knows

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Speaker 1: gets there first. And you know, usually you can tell.

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Speaker 1: If you can't tell, if their heads are really bobbing

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Speaker 1: up and down, you know, I'll stay too close to call,

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Speaker 1: but I will try to call it as much as possible.

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Speaker 1: Toughest name you've ever had to call. There was a

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Speaker 1: horse who used to get me all the time that

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Speaker 1: ran in Monmouth Park in New Jersey named Pressed the Digitation,

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Speaker 1: which you know, by itself isn't bad. But when you know,

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Speaker 1: when the horse like that is running in a stretch

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Speaker 1: battle with like four other horses, it's just way too

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Speaker 1: many syllables, you know, and they sort of mishmashing your

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Speaker 1: in your head. But Pressed the digetation, I remember that

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Speaker 1: when being a little little tricky. Can you can you

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Speaker 1: do nicknames for the horses or can you compress their name?

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Speaker 1: I guess you could. I tend not to, but you know, occasionally,

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Speaker 1: American Pharaoh became just Pharaoh after a while because everybody

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Speaker 1: knew who he was, and you know, but I would

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Speaker 1: call him American Pharaoh, but every once in a while

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Speaker 1: he was just Pharaoh. Give us the headlines for the

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Speaker 1: Breeders Cup. What should we be keeping an eye on?

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Speaker 1: So the Breeders Cup Classic this year a horse that

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Speaker 1: you all know, probably more than the big horse, is

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Speaker 1: rich Strike, the winner of the Kentucky Derby. He is

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Speaker 1: back in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He was the horse

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Speaker 1: that was an eighty to one upset winner that came

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Speaker 1: up the rail to win the Derby. But the big

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Speaker 1: name in the race is a horse name flight Line

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Speaker 1: who has won every race of his career by a

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Speaker 1: long way, open lengths, running fast times, destroying the competition,

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Speaker 1: and he is getting a lot of people saying he

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Speaker 1: is the best since Secretariat, and Secretariat was now forty

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Speaker 1: nine years ago that he won the Triple Crown, and

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Speaker 1: the comparisons are out there right now to him just

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Speaker 1: the way, flight Line is just dominated. He didn't run

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Speaker 1: in the Triple Crown because he came along a little later.

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Speaker 1: The Triple Crown is just for three year olds. He

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Speaker 1: came around a little bit later. He's four, but he

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Speaker 1: is completely dominant. Why haven't we had that next Secretariat?

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Speaker 1: It's a good question. I mean that there have been

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Speaker 1: some really really good horses over the years. You know,

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Speaker 1: you had just after Secretariat, you had a horse like

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Speaker 1: Spectacular Bid who was who was great? And then you know,

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Speaker 1: years after that, there's been there have been some dominant horses,

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Speaker 1: but none that really did what he did. It ran,

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Speaker 1: you know the times that he did. Flight Line is

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Speaker 1: doing that. He is just he's put together. The people

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Speaker 1: that make speed figures are having to change their scale

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Speaker 1: because he's so fast. So it should be very interesting

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Speaker 1: to see what he does. It would be fun if

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Speaker 1: he just wins the race, you know, by a huge margin.

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Speaker 1: And uh, and you know that would be ideal, I think,

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Speaker 1: But but you know, they have to run the race

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Speaker 1: for sure. How often do you bet on races that

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Speaker 1: you call? You know, not that often, Dan, Every once

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Speaker 1: in a while, I will I try to, you know,

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Speaker 1: stay away from that, just because it's a distraction. But

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Speaker 1: in some ways it kind of helps because it gives you,

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Speaker 1: you know, a good thought of how the race is

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Speaker 1: going to be able to run. So I'll handicap the race,

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Speaker 1: try to pick a winner, but not necessarily put my

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Speaker 1: money down. I would love for you to say and

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Speaker 1: justify wins damn it. Have you ever I didn't have

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Speaker 1: the exact Have you ever had one of those moments

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Speaker 1: where you said something and it goes out over the

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Speaker 1: loudspeaker and you'll go, oh, no, it does happen every

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Speaker 1: once in a while, but uh, but but hopefully it's

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Speaker 1: it's nothing bad. I recently was calling somewhere and they

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Speaker 1: had the mic on that I didn't know what was on,

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Speaker 1: and luckily, you know, whatever, whatever it came out of

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Speaker 1: my mouth was acceptable. But you get into such a rhythm,

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Speaker 1: and I have great admiration for it because it's this

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Speaker 1: leads up to the two minutes that are so important

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Speaker 1: in your sport and to you. And to be able

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Speaker 1: to do it live and do it well every it's

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Speaker 1: almost like a Broadway performance. It's right in front of us,

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Speaker 1: it's live, and you're able to capture a moment. So

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Speaker 1: I've a great admiration for being able to put us

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Speaker 1: as close to the action as possible. Well, I appreciate that,

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Speaker 1: And I know you had some nice words that after

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Speaker 1: rich Strike won the Kentucky Derby, and you know, to me,

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Speaker 1: that's the that's the toughest race to do because you're

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Speaker 1: you're you realize how many people are paying attention, and

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Speaker 1: you look out at the crowd and you see one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand people and you just have to

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Speaker 1: bring your heartbreak down somehow. But that's that is a

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Speaker 1: wild race to call. And I can't believe I've done

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Speaker 1: it twelve times now, Larry, Uh, don't screw it up

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Speaker 1: in the Breeders' cup. Okay, I'm gonna try my best option.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us absolutely, Then take care