Larry Collmus, race caller for the Kentucky Derby, the Triple Crown and the Breeders Cup on NBC, joined the Announcer Schedules Podcast recently, for a conversation with Mike Gill and Phil de Montmollin.
Collmus joined NBC Sports in 2011 as the race caller for the network’s coverage of the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont), and Breeders’ Cup, replacing Tom Durkin. In 2015, he called American Pharoah’s historic runs to the Triple Crown — the first since Affirmed in 1978 — and the first-ever horse racing “grand slam,” and called another Triple Crown run three years later when Justify achieved the historic feat.
He called his first race three decades later at just 18 years old, working at Bowie Race Track in 1985. He later became the announcer at Churchill Downs, Gulfstream Park and Monmouth Park and has called races at Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park, Santa Anita Park and the Meadowlands, as well as numerous races on ESPN, FOX and CBS.
Collmus earned national notice in 2010 when he called a race at Monmouth Park featuring two horses named Mywifenosevrything and Thewifedoesntknow. The two horses made a move on the back stretch and found themselves leading the race, with Collmus playing off the contrasts of the two horses’ names in his stretch call. In this conversation, he goes into detail of that famous call as well as his spectacular call of the historic upset by Rich Strike at the 2022 Kentucky Derby.
The Maryland native also discusses the unique skillset required to call horse racing as well as the preparation he puts in before each race. He also describes how he broke into the business at a young age and the moment in which he was named race caller for the “Triple Crown” on NBC.
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