"Ace Blue will watch those two run away" - Vic Staufer

[SentToStud]

Originally Posted by miraja2

Ah yes, from the '04 Preakness. Durkin was great in the entire Triple Crown that year.
"And Smarty Jones is ROUSED TO THE LEAD under journeyman jockey Stewart Elliot!"
"and Birdstone is going to make him it earn it today"

Durkin can be WAY over the top spmetimes (see "Invasor is AWESOME!!") but I'll take him over Vic any day. I guess it really just boils down to personal preference though.

I'd say the California guys are both overrated but also have it harder in some ways.

It's got to be far easier calling 5 and 6 horse fields than fields of 10-12. Stauffer's call was not good, but he was probably trying to come up with something to say in the short field. A better judge of talent, I think, is to compare announcers calling a 12 horse field race.

In any event, I really never listen to an announcer when I am on-track. At home, it is different, because I'm limited in what I can see. So, to me, the most important part of an announcers job, aside from quickly and accurately calling the start, is to let those watching on TV/Internet know what , if anythng, important is happening outside of camera range.