He'll refer to the finish line as "the winning wire" or "the first line." Huh? A horse showing early speed comes out "with guns blazing" and "pace a-plenty." A front-runner is "dictating terms," and when a stalker saves ground, it's "magnetized to the rail" and "in a holding pattern." A jockey going to the whip is "drawing his sword." When the betting choice wins, "the favorite obliges." If a stretch runner has to weave through the field, it's "beginning a slalom run."
Where does John G. Dooley come up with this stuff? You certainly can't accuse him of copying anybody. No matter how you react to his racecalls, he won't ever paint the word picture by the numbers. Connecting the dots is not his game.
Dooley, the announcer at the Fair Grounds and Arlington, can be far too flamboyant, especially to Old School horseplayers, but is still one of the nation's top callers. His voice is strong, his descriptions accurate, he gives a feel for the whole race and spots a winning move before the horse makes the lead. His detractors say he gets in the way by being over the top, but a cruise through the horse-blogging universe reveals many Dooley admirers.
One called him "the nation's most underrated racecaller," and another questioned why Churchill Downs, which owns the Fair Grounds and Arlington, hasn't replaced the competent but less stylish Luke Kruytbosch with Dooley. One said Dooley "has passed Trevor Denman to become the best racecaller in America." Unlike many announcers who fill in the blanks every race as they drone through the field from front to back, Dooley extends himself energetically. One blogger called him "incredibly creative," and "Sundaysilence4ever" said, "I love John Dooley. He has a special way of making every race exciting no matter what the level, building a crescendo to the stretch and then to the finish." Sounds like love to me. Do racecallers have groupies?
Dooley will identify who's riding whom and say whether a jockey is biding his time with plenty of horse or urging with no response. The information he provides is rarely wrong, though often it's conveyed with too much enthusiasm. Dooley got on Steve Asmussen's nerves last month when he yelled "And Pyro is last!" at the top of the stretch before the trainer's Derby favorite won the Risen Star Stakes.
Occasionally Dooley bugs me, but mainly I like him. I'll watch a cheap Louisiana-bred claiming race just to see if he'll throw in one of his idiosyncratic phrases such as "Good ground, this" or "the daunting Fair Grounds stretch." He obviously has a passion for his job, and with some self-editing and a volume control, someday he might be as famous and esteemed as Denman and Tom Durkin. But please, John, drop the "winning wire" and "first line." Don't try quite so hard to be creative.
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2 comments:
John Dooley's patent "As the winning line blooms," compounded with one of the clearest voices and extensive vocabularies, defines him as one of the best, if not the best, race callers in the land today. My father, whom I made listen to Dooley, said it was like music. Never since the days of Roy Shudt at Branywine have I been so moved by a voice. For anyone who doubts, the individual is simply envious of the talent and the passion, particularly the talent, and to them I say "They're they go!"
He says "as the winning line looms," NOT blooms you moron!
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