Tom Durkin On The Call

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by pmayjr

Danzig,
That's not true. It wasn't his choice. Durkin is under contract with NBC, and can't get out of it. The exception is the Belmont, because it's his home track. But he was tied to his NBC contract, so he couldn't call the BC races for ESPN/ABC. I think if you gave Durkin the choice, he'd keep doing the Derby and Preakness over the BC... I'd wanna call what's deemed the biggest race in the U.S. over anything else.

durkin said it was his choice to go with nbc, knowing full well he was giving up the bc. that he understood he was giving up a big day, but would have plenty of other racing throughout the year. it was his choice to give up the bc, in order to call a ton of other racing throughout the year, and in order to get that contract-which no doubt was quite lucrative, and made it worth his while to give up the bc.