As he heads into the stretch, the FINAL time ........ the Legend makes his Final call

Just a few weeks ago, one of the most famous television announcers of all time past away at the age of ninety six years old. Don Pardo, television announcer at NBC for 70 years and most notable for his work on Saturday Night Live was one of the most recognizable voices in our life time. While sometimes you might not recognize the name or the face, when you here the voice , you know it well. It was Pardo on television, Kasey Kasem in music and Bob Sheppard at Yankee Stadium. In the thoroughbred world there is one such voice and it has been associated with every event on track for over 25 years. He was the voice of the Breeder's Cup and the voice of NYRA the past twenty four years; Tom Durkin.

Anyone who has follow the sport, knows Tom Durkin. He started with calling races at county fairs in Wisconsin in the early 70's, he was the track announcer at most of the Florida thoroughbred tracks and chosen as the announcer for the Breeder's Cup in 1984. He was the voice of racing's championship day from it's inception in 1984 until 2005. He also was exclusively the racing announcer for NBC until 2011. But Tom Durkin will be most known as the announcer that called races at the "Mecca" of thoroughbred racing based in New York at NYRA tracks.

Whether it was calling races where horses had funny sounding names or classic exciting finishes, Tom Durkin was the master. For most people, he was the voice you always heard. He told a story and it's always had humor and he had a masterful way of telling it.

Here are some of his classic calls throughout the years. The 1991 Breeder's Cup Juvenile when European import; Arazi made that gigantic winning move that made him "Indeed a Superstar", the 1994 Travers Stakes where there was "Cause for Concern" when the closer; Concern put in his run on Holy Bull just to come up short in the end, the 1995 Breeder's Cup Classic where "The unconquerable, invincible, unbeatable Cigar!" continued his historic winning streak for the ages, the 1998 Belmont Stakes when Durkin said "It's too close to call, was it Real Quiet or was it Victory Gallop? A picture is worth a thousand words, this photo is worth five million dollars! Oh, no History in the waiting! ", the 2001 Breeder's Cup Classic at Belmont Park just a few days after 9-11 when the champion from the year before, ran down his European counterparts and "Tiznow wins it for America!", the 2004 Belmont Stakes when a little horse from Philadelphia Park tried to make history "Smarty Jones enters the stretch to the roar of 120,000! But Birdstone is gonna make him earn it today! The whip is out on Smarty Jones! It's been 26 years, it's just one furlong away!" unfortunately, we know the rest of the story! Fillies have played a big part in some of Durkin's greatest calls like; the 2007 Belmont Stakes where "A filly is in front at the Belmont! But Curlin is right there with her! These two, in a battle of the sexes in the Belmont Stakes, they're coming down to the wire! It's going to be very close! And it's going to be..... a filly in the Belmont! Rags to Riches has beaten Curlin and a hundred years of Belmont history! The first filly to win it in over a century" and just two years later; "They are coming to the finish, it's gonna be a desperately close, here's the wire, Rachel won, she is indeed Rachel Alexandra the Great..... Rachel Alexandra raises the rafters here at the Spa!" These are what made Tom Durkin the race caller who will always be the greatest in the minds of the fans.

Tomorrow, Tom calls it quits in announcing and the final race on Sunday afternoon will bring the curtain down a fabulous career. It's the day before the final race day at the Spa for the year and on Monday, Tom will be a fan with the fans, just enjoying the races with the people who enjoyed his calls for nearly 45 years!