Collmus or Stauffer GP 2009 (Poll)

[ArlJim78]

just try to imagine all of the memorable big race calls Collmus has made.
there aren't any because when he calls a race it sounds unimportant, bland. 10K claimers or gr1's, no difference.
no doubt in my mind that they took a step backwards when they made the change.

[Indian Charlie]

Arnold Horshack.

[countrydick]

Clearly Vic is the better of the two, and he vehemently defended Gulfstream during the abortion that it has become and got fired nonetheless.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

Arnold Horshack.

mr. kot-tair.

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

just try to imagine all of the memorable big race calls Collmus has made.
there aren't any because when he calls a race it sounds unimportant, bland. 10K claimers or gr1's, no difference.
no doubt in my mind that they took a step backwards when they made the change.

He doesn't have memorable calls because:

1.) He hardly ever gets to announce memorable races.
2.) He doesn't throw in the gimmicky lines that Vic does (I'm not trying to bash Vic, he's obviously one of the best, just saying).

How many memorable calls does Kurt Becker have? Does that make him a worse announcer than Stauffer or Durkin or Denman? IMO, no.

[Indian Charlie]

People complaining about track callers, they've obviously never been graced by any single race call from Bill Gahr. Ghar? Gar?

I remember listening to him in the car when I had a bet and thinking how useless it all was. He was so bad, that one time he called my horse finishing third. I was so suspicious that I called one of those result lines (1980s) a few minutes later and found out that my horse had indeed won!

The day I heard my last Bill Gahr race call on KIEV, with it's compulsory Lathrop Hoffman car ads, well, that was a glorious day!

[Rupert Pupkin]

I think there are only a few race-callers who truly add excitement to a race. My two favorites by far are Vic and Durkin. I think both of those guys really add excitement to a race. In some of those big races, their calls are so good and so exciting that years later when you look back on some of those great races, you not only remember the race but you remember the great call.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

People complaining about track callers, they've obviously never been graced by any single race call from Bill Gahr. Ghar? Gar?

I remember listening to him in the car when I had a bet and thinking how useless it all was. He was so bad, that one time he called my horse finishing third. I was so suspicious that I called one of those result lines (1980s) a few minutes later and found out that my horse had indeed won!

The day I heard my last Bill Gahr race call on KIEV, with it's compulsory Lathrop Hoffman car ads, well, that was a glorious day!

Bill Garr was a piece of work. He has got to be the worst of all times. A race caller is obviously very important when you are listening on the radio because you can't see the race. You are depending on the race-caller to describe what is happening. With Garr, even after the horses had past the 1/16th pole you had no idea what was going on. He would say, "And as they come down to the wire it will be.........". And you would have no idea who he was going to call. Sometimes he would say, "As they come down to the wire, it is so-and-so quickly pulling away to win by 8 lengths." And you had no idea that the horse that was pulling away by 8 was even winning the race until Garr called him in front by 8 at the wire.

Old English Rancho was one of the regular sponsors of the show. They always had commercials on there every week. If my memory is correct, the law offices of Dirnfeld and Zelner had commercials on there too. Bill Garr seemed like a nice old guy. He just couldn't call a race. I'm not sure whether he is still alive. If he is, he must be well into his 80s.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Bill Garr was a piece of work. He has got to be the worst of all times. A race caller is obviously very important when you are listening on the radio because you can't see the race. You are depending on the race-caller to describe what is happening. With Garr, even after the horses had past the 1/16th pole you had no idea what was going on. He would say, "And as they come down to the wire it will be.........". And you would have no idea who he was going to call. Sometimes he would say, "As they come down to the wire, it is so-and-so quickly pulling away to win by 8 lengths." And you had no idea that the horse that was pulling away by 8 was even winning the race until Garr called him in front by 8 at the wire.

Old English Rancho was one of the regular sponsors of the show. They always had commercials on there every week. If my memory is correct, the law offices of Dirnfeld and Zelner had commercials on there too. Bill Garr seemed like a nice old guy. He just couldn't call a race. I'm not sure whether he is still alive. If he is, he must be well into his 80s.

Yeah man, he sure was a suspenseful caller! I can't remember how many times I would scream at my car radio things like "WHO THE FU-K WON THE FU-KING RACE! TELL ME WHO WON!!!" or "How the fu-k did that horse win by 8, you never even called him once in the race!?".

I always kinda wished that Paul Wallach and Bill Garr would have switched radio shows for a week, even though Wallach gave out pretty good restaurant reviews.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

He doesn't have memorable calls because:

1.) He hardly ever gets to announce memorable races.
2.) He doesn't throw in the gimmicky lines that Vic does (I'm not trying to bash Vic, he's obviously one of the best, just saying).

How many memorable calls does Kurt Becker have? Does that make him a worse announcer than Stauffer or Durkin or Denman? IMO, no.

Becker is so much better than Collmus it isnt funny. he has crafted his style around the overall image that Keeneland is striving for, and it works. they don't want him to add any bells and whistles to the calls. Collmus seems to being trying to make the Gulfstream racing exciting with his calls, just for me it doesn't work, like it has a screachy phony quality to it.