Churchill Downs goes with British announcer
 

Churchill Downs officials planned to formally announce Thursday morning at a media conference that Mark Johnson, a 42-year-old native of Skegness, England, has been hired as the sixth race-caller in the history of the Louisville, Ky., track.

A Churchill spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Johnson had been selected over four other men who tried out for the position during the 2008 fall meet. The selection process had been ongoing since shortly after the meet ended in late November and was undertaken by a committee of track officials.
http://drf.com/news/article/101060.html

damn! should have been wrona.............

others were good, but I thought this guy was a bit better

Classy guy. I like him

Loved this guy...glad to see he got the job

It's just a matter of time before Travis gets the bump up somewhere.

I do like the selection and look forward to the spring meet.

Score one for the Brits

:D :tro: :tro:

I love the selection, I thought he was awesome and like Bigs, looking forward to the spring meet.

it will be funny to hear that accent and not hear "And away they gooo."

I thought Johnson did a good job, although I'm really surprised Churchill went with a non-American. If I was making odds, this would have been my line:

I'll do some searching for some of Mark's calls with huge fields in England. It will feel like I'm back home when I hear him calling the races

He's done quite a lot of calls at Suffolk and some at Calder as well as a number of pre-Breeders' Cup calls as a Guest Announcer. 7 days in he will call a 20 runner race-something he has a heap of experience at.

I'm also sure that Churchill will make good use of some of his other skills. He's an absolutely fantastic Chairman/host of Q and A sessions-he Chaired the London Racing Club meetings for years-and I think he's also a Auto Sport commentator-so maybe he will do NASCAR as well!

The job will be perfect for him as I'm sure he'll come back here in the winter to carry on announcing and commentating at the Point to Point courses etc

:tro: :eek: :tro:

The euros on here are giving him Chuck Norris status. Enough already!!

so, mark johnson is a bad actor too?

KGB in 3...2....1

Can someone post a link to some of his calls? I tried Youtube with little luck...thanks.

Races from November 26 through November 29th at Churchill, all the races are on Youtube

Cant beleive CHD Execs finally got an important decision right. Maybe they should do a poll for everything.

Some of his Churchill calls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1wxJVo90v0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFK1w...eature=related

Great news!

Cardus, watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7OP0CABXDg

Eh.

Forgive me if I'm not excited by the selection. I was a huge fan of Luke K and just feel it'll be tough to hear someone else under the twin spires.

Someone call me??

Luke was absolutely at the top of my list and he left us way too soon, but you have to move on (or go retro without an announcer). I am more exited for the spring meet because I will actually be able to wager. Mark Johnson calling the races will be an interesting, and IMO a fine, addition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfg3jbU2uaY

This was the race that sealed my vote for MJ.
He picked up some trouble for the eventual winner while he was in between horses, that I beleive few other announcers would've noticed.
I remember watching the race live and it seemed liked a minute of chaos but, Johnson never missed a beat.

From the little I heard, this new guy sounded pretty good during the tryout.
I'm sure he'll do well. Like others though, I was particularily fond of the style of LK, and still can't believe that we're not going to hear anymore how they're "set down for the drive".

I liked this call http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTKKs...eature=channel

Anyone that tried out would have been a solid choice, but I think Johnson was very good that week and was just slightly better in his calls. I wish him the best of luck.

good call give him time he will do quite well.
good choice.

I imagine Johnson will do very well. Personally, he's my favourite commentator in Britain; it's not a commonly held view, he's not liked by many for being too 'shouty', but that's just his style, less British, more American. But the main thing is that he very rarely misses a thing, makes few mistakes and brings races to life, and that's not much more you can ask than that.