Churchill Downs goes with British announcer

[Alan07]

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

[onebadbeast]

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

[PeteMugg]

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

[TheSpyder]

Classy guy. I like him

[Habersham000]

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

[Bigsmc]

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.

[viscount26]

Score one for the Brits

[Scav]

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

[ddthetide]

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

[SlewsMyHero]

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:

Announcer	ML	Comment

Travis Stone	9/5	Poplular young Dave Johnson sound alike with big upside
Bobby Neuman	5/2	Calder announcer gives accurate and exciting calls.
Mark Johnson	9/2	Fancy caller from England
Michael Wrona	6/1	Veteran from Australia, lost his voice and was replaced by John Asher
Larry Collmus	12/1	Monotone veteran caller

[viscount26]

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

[saratogabrit]

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

[Scav]

Originally Posted by Cardus

Illegal aliens such as yourself are free to go "back home" at any time, you know.

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

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

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

so, mark johnson is a bad actor too?

[viscount26]

Originally Posted by Cardus

Illegal aliens such as yourself are free to go "back home" at any time, you know.

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

[XIIPointStables]

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

[Scav]

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

[VOL JACK]

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

[Athletics005]

Some of his Churchill calls:

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

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