In honor of Tom Durkin’s retirement from race calling on August 31, we are taking a look back at 40 of his most memorable calls–one for each day of the 2014 Saratoga meet.
As we draw nearer to this year’s edition of the Travers Stakes, the signature race day of the Saratoga meet, today’s 40 Days of Durkin focuses on a particularly exciting renewal of the Travers. The 1997 race featured, among others, Deputy Commander, Behrens and Awesome Again. The race really shifts into high gear down the stretch drive, as Tom Durkin describes Chris McCarron imploring Deputy Commander to hold on through the final furlong as Behrens, under Jerry Bailey, bears down to the wire. It is an epic battle to the finish which Deputy Commander ends up winning — by a nostril.
The reason I decided to include this race in the 40 Days of Durkin series is because it highlights Durkin’s uncanny ability to call the winner of an impossibly close race in real time. As Deputy Commander and Behrens fight stride for stride down to the wire, Durkin’s voice rising in intensity as the race reaches its climax, Durkin calls Deputy Commander as the winner as the horses cross the line. Its a nose-bob finish but, as usual, Durkin nailed it. The 1997 Travers is just one (particularly high profile) example – there are innumerable examples of Durkin calling such close races without the benefit of the replay or the finish photo. This is both amazing and an example of Durkin’s talent as a race caller. It also serves to make it all the more poignant when Durkin announces that a race is indeed so close that it is “too close to call!”
