Michael Wrona

Michael Wrona is an announcer from Australia specializing in thoroughbred horse racing. He is the current race caller at Golden Gate Fields, the Sonoma County Fair and Santa Anita Park, all in California. Wrona has previously called races at Hollywood Park Racetrack in southern California; Bay Meadows in northern California; Arlington Park in Illinois; the New Orleans Fair Grounds in Louisiana; Turf Paradise Racecourse in Phoenix, Arizona; and Lone Star Park and Retama Park in Texas.

Wrona is best known for the phrase "Racing!", which he says at the start of every race call.

Historical calls

Michael Wrona has called some historic thoroughbred races during his calling career in the United States.

In 1996, Wrona called the Arlington Citation Challenge at Arlington Park (telecast live, nationwide, on CBS), in which Cigar won his 16th consecutive race. The win tied the previous record of nearly 50 years held by Citation.^[1]

On December 10, 1999, at Hollywood Park, Wrona called the race that saw Laffit Pincay Jr pass Bill Shoemaker for most career victories by a jockey. Nearly seven years later, on December 1, 2006, Wrona was the announcer for the race at Bay Meadows in which Russell Baze passed Pincay for the same honors.^[1]

On November 11, 2008, as one of five announcers invited to audition for the job at Churchill Downs, Wrona called all seven of Julien Leparoux's winners. Leparoux became only the second jockey in the 134-year history of Churchill Downs to win seven races in a single day. He tied the record set by Pat Day set when he won seven of the eight races on June 20, 1984.^[2] Wrona remarked during the race just after crossing the line in the fourth consecutive win on the card by Leparoux: "I tell you, he'd win on a broomstick!".^[1] On his fifth day of calling the races, Wrona had to step out due to vocal issues leading to John Asher calling the final two races of the day.

Other noteworthy credits

Wrona voiced a race call for the 1992 Seinfeld episode titled "The Subway," in which Kramer overhears a tip while riding a subway train.

Wrona called the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network, filling in for Tom Durkin.

In 2012, Wrona called South America's biggest race, the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini, from the Hipodromo de San Isidro in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the HRTV network. This marked the fourth country in which Wrona had broadcast - apart from his two countries of citizenship, Australia and the United States, he was invited to share the announcing duties when thoroughbred racing returned to historic Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1991.

References