Tom Durkin

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Tom Durkin

Background information
Sports:	Thoroughbred horse racing

Tom Durkin (b. 1950/1) is an American sportscaster and public address announcer specializing in Thoroughbred horse racing. A native of Chicago, he studied drama at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.

He is the race caller for NBC Sports, and has served as the announcer for the New York Racing Association at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course since 1990.

Durkin is one of horse racing's most identifiable voices. He has served as the Breeders Cup's chief TV voice from its inception through 2005, and is currently under exclusive contract by NBC as part of the network's sportscasting crew for horse races, providing analysis, commentary and features in addition to the descriptions of races.

Durkin has earned fame in this decade from calling the Triple Crown races for NBC, which took over the coverage of the three Triple Crown races in 2001 and has aired two of the three jewels since 2006 -- the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. When the race begins, Durkin will speak with high energy, and then tone down as the race progresses, and then builds back up to a significant level of excitement as the horses enter the final turn. He tends to begin races by commenting on the horses that have broken well, and then mentioning his opinion of the early pace.

Due to his contract with NBC, Durkin no longer calls Breeders' Cup races, starting from 2006, as those races have moved to ESPN.^[1]^[2] However, he is able to continue calling the Belmont Stakes, which air on ABC, because of his position as the track announcer at Belmont Park.

Like his predecessor, Marshall Cassidy, Durkin is also a popular TV voice on important stakes races on ESPN beyond the Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup series.

In addition to the NYRA tracks, Durkin has also called races at many other locations across America, most notably at Gulfstream Park and Meadowlands Racetrack. Durkin called the memorable match race in the 1989 Hambletonian harness race at The Meadowlands between Park Avenue Joe and Probe; both horses finished in a dead heat becoming the only co-winners of the prestigious race.

[edit] Famous Quotes

“ Victory Gallop is six lengths from the lead but he's gathering momentum. And as they arrive at the top of the stretch, Real Quiet is taking the lead! He's coming to the eight pole! Twenty years in the waiting, one furlong to go, but here comes his rival, Victory Gallop! As they come to the final sixteenth, Kent Desormeaux imploring Real Quiet to hold on! Victory Gallop, a final surge! It's going to be very close! Here's the wire! ... [pause] ... IT'S TOO CLOSE TO CALL! (Durkin describing the photo finish with Real Quiet's Triple Crown on the line at the 1998 Belmont Stakes) ”

“ Here comes Monarchos, who sweeps to the lead! He's pulling away by two, he's pulling away by three! Jorge Chavez and Monarchos have won the Kentucky Derby! (Durkin calling his first Kentucky Derby in 2001) ”

“ And undefeated Smarty Jones comes wide off the turn! And these two hook up at the top of the stretch! Lionheart is all heart! Smarty Jones is all out! And those two...deadlocked at the eight pole...and Smarty Jones is roused to the lead by journeyman jockey Stewart Elliott and they have taken the lead away from Lionheart. Farther back it's Limehouse and Imperialism, and here is the first undefeated winner of the Kentucky Derby since Seattle Slew in 1977, Smarty Jones has done it!" (Durkin describing Smarty Jones' win in the first leg of the three Triple Crown races in 2004) ”