Michael Wrona | KY Downs Preview

Don't want to make him wait any longer.

If not my favorite, one of my very favorite track announcers

in the United States. His name is Michael Rona joins

us here on the program. He'll be calling all the action

here in the seven days at Kentucky Downs.

Just like a 300 yard quarter horse race, is it not a little

two mile turf race here? Michael, thanks for joining us.

How are you? I'm fine.

Thank you very much, Louie. Great to see you, mate.

You talk about 1 Extreme to the other, from the quarter horse

racing at Los Alamitos to the vast expenses and undulations of

Kentucky down this wonderful turf course.

Ohh bad. It's good to have you back.

This is your third trip here. How many years have you been?

Is this your third trip? Yeah, I did the whole meet in

2019. Yep.

Shared the 2020 duties with Larry Comas.

Yeah, Lawry's been appointed full time at Delmar now, so I've

been invited back and I'm delighted to be here and

grateful that Los Alamitos released me for a couple of

weekends. There you are.

You know, you talk about Larry getting the job at Delmar and,

and you know, Trevor wraps it up after many, many years of, of

doing great work there in San Diego, described Trevor.

You know, it's just one of those guys.

I know you live in a, a small ecosystem of a job.

There are very few people who do what you do.

I'm sure you're very aware of each other.

But Trevor Diamond in Southern California, What?

What a lasting legacy. Well, he blazed the trail.

He's he's the reason that I found my way to the United

States. That was his immense popularity

in the 1980s at both Santa Anita and Del Mar Hollywood Park.

At the time, the I guess the relationship was a little

acrimonious and the lady who ran Hollywood Park, Marge Everett,

was unable to use Trevor Denman Santa Anita wooden letter.

So it launched her on an international search for another

voice who might be able to provide the kind of style that

Trevor had because he was revolutionizing everything back

then. And it LED her to the leading

race caller in Australia, my idol in Sydney, John Tapp, who

came only for a few weeks in a guest capacity.

He was not interested in the long term engagement, too well

entrenched down under, but he brought his family for a a

working vacation, and when Marge asked him if there were some

younger fellow with fewer commitments who might accompany

him with a view to finishing off the meat, he contacted me.

I'd never met him. I'd idolized him from afar.

I was in a different city. Wow.

And a few weeks later, I was sitting on a jumbo jet bound for

Los Angeles, and it changed my career and life trajectory

instantly. And here we are now you're a

California guy posting about tacos.

I mean, this is, this is how I know you're all in.

You're posting about tacos. Yeah, it's been an amazing

journey. I've lived more than half my

life here. Proud deal, citizen.

Sure, I've ended up seeing more of the United States than

Australia, as it's turned out. How?

Funny. And how it works out, well, you

you get to come here and call these races.

And as you mentioned, obviously it's different than what you do

certainly at Los Alamitos. But frankly, you might be at the

extreme of the difference, right?

A dirt only track out there in Los Angeles, coming to the

countryside here at the Tennessee border with Kentucky,

you know, this kind of thing. How do you have to adjust when

you come to a place like this? Because you know, calling a

quarter horse race is its own challenge.

Certainly at Los Al as well during the thoroughbred meets,

you're calling mile, mile and an eight kinds of races as well.

But what's the difference in the challenge here for you?

Oh. It's just the, it's the sight

lines. It's so challenging.

Stronger binoculars for one thing, I'm sure, but even the

best binoculars can't keep track of every movement of every horse

at certain points of this race course, particularly when they

top the hill and take a right hand downhill run into the far

turn past the three quarters pole.

You lose sight of them at that point, essentially.

Yeah, it's, it's just difficult to know who's in front.

You can't, Yeah, you can't see the saddle clothes.

Forget that. You've got to go by the jockey

silks. And so I commit them to memory.

And but you can think that the inside horse is more forwardly

placed than he really is. And then there's a head on

perspective for the first half of the stretch until they take

the little dog leg at the 8th pole.

There's all these idiosyncrasies and there's enhanced television

coverage now that they've introduced for this mate, a

cable can the length of the stretch and a drone, which would

be great for the viewers, but it it might make me look worse.

I'm a bit nervous about. It Yeah.

Right. I might be able to incorporate

some of it into my work, but that'll come from studying

today's replays. I'll have to live and die by my

binoculars today. But you know, maybe there's some

points of the race where I can actually have a answer the TV

and and see them better than through my binoculars.

When you handicap Kentucky Downs coming in and Michael Rona's

with us, he calls the races here in Kentucky Downs this year and

usually you hear his voice Saturday, Sunday nights out at

Los Alamitos. Would you handicap the races

coming in? Are you looking for specific

things or is this purely a, you know, are you trying to figure

out the pay scenarios, whose might be on the lead and so I

can call that kind of early or is it more just bad?

I'm trying to memorize those silks because the sight lines.

Yeah, fortunately they've got a very, very good broadcast team

here of analysts and handicappers.

I don't need to worry about that aspect of it.

I'll have my hands full because all of these horses and colours

are new to me. They're coming from all

directions and even from overseas to participate at this

race mate. So it's it's going to be all I

can manage to just get the names and the colours straight.

I do of course have a glance through the past performances

and just get a little bit of a feel for the make up of the race

and whether there might be a lot of extra pace or a lack of pace.

You know, I wanna know some background of horses, maybe if a

horse hasn't run for eight months or is adding blinkers, if

there's some angle. I certainly make notations along

those lines. But I don't have to actually

evaluate every horse and come up with a top selection and that

sort of thing, which. Which is a great relief to me.

Yeah, I. Bet yeah, Michael Rhoda with us,

he'll call the races here the next seven race days here at

Kentucky Downs. Do you look forward to anything

in particular when you come here?

Is it is it just the challenge of calling the races here?

Is it the the relaxed environment?

Is there something to particularly like about Kentucky

Downs? Well, it's, it's almost

reminiscent of some Australian tracks.

And as you mentioned, there's no turf course at Los Alamitos

apart from a guest called when I was in Australia back in

January. This will be the first turf

racing that I've called since I was here in 2020.

And it's just so different to the dirt racing.

It's tactical and the emphasis in the dirt racing is on early

speed. It's not necessarily like that

on the turf. You know, the cadence can

quicken and everything can unfold more in the final stages

on the turf. And it's just so pleasant here.

You know, there's no grandstand. It's just so unique and laid

back. And so I, I love the whole

setting. I love everything about it and

it'll be just great to get my teeth into some of these good

sized fields on the turf. Yeah, the good sized field is

another statement for sure. Michael, a guy who I mentioned

right before we came on air and, and Tony Kalo has joined our

circuit here in Kentucky and, and his colleague races at both

Ellis Park and at Turfway Park doing some analysis work as well

on the simulcast of Churchill Downs.

And he mentions you a lot when I interview him.

I, I, I happen to be a, a geek for, for track announcers and I

try to talk to as many of them as I can.

But Tony talks about you various very succinctly in his

development story. And he said one of the things he

learned from you was if you ever get lost, just go back to the

top. Just go back to the top of the

race. Do you think you'll have to do

that here at Kentucky Downs? Is there is there a spot in

which there's 1214 on the track? You might have to start over or

you you, you are you at a point where you don't have to worry

about that? I'm. 1 to 9 of aborting at some

point, getting through the field and, and just regrouping.

Yeah, I, I would say that's inevitable.

And, you know, I'm a perfectionist, always have been

my, my own biggest critic. But I've, I've been telling

myself coming here, I've got to just cut myself a little bit of

slack, be a little kinder to myself because you can't

possibly call all the races here to perfection.

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah.

Tyler Geffelion just walked up here.

You probably say his name quite a bit this week.

Yes. At least he's something, right?

You know, when you think about the purses here and just the,

the sort of spectacle that this spot is, can you kind of, I, I,

I'll be honest, I can't wrap my head around a $200,000

allowance. And frankly, you're living in a

world out in Southern California.

That's a great too, right? I mean, you know, talk about

these purses out here. I talk with owners from

different places, BBN racing, different spots where they've

started to make this the cornerstone of what they do in

Kentucky because they know how many bills they can pay if they

can, you know, just hit the board at some of these races

here. Is it ever you ever look at

those purses and think, my goodness, we're running for

210,000 here. It's mind boggling

stratospheric. Yeah.

Hey, just just to touch briefly on Tony, since you did mention

him, I, I would like to reciprocate and just mention how

fond I am of Tony and how immensely proud I am of him this

opportunity he has in Kentucky. You have a great story of how

you guys got. Overview and well deserved.

Yeah, he wrote me a letter when I was calling at Bay Meadows in

the early 90s, and he was an aspiring race caller.

And I invited him out to practice in a spare booth and

listened to his race calls and critiqued him just as what what

had happened for me in my formative years as I was trying

to break into it Down Under. And so to see him now doing what

he's doing and doing it so well warms my heart.

That's great. I love it so, so much.

Well, a bunch of great calls. I hope you have a ton of fun

while you're here. Are you getting back to Los

Angeles during the during the meet or are you going to be

hanging out here for a couple? Weeks now, I'll be anchored

here. I've got three days off early

next week I'm heading out to Lexington to visit a few friends

there. My wife is flying in here Sunday

night, so she'll be around for the second-half of this meet and

we finish on Wednesday the 10th of September.

I'm on a flight back to LA the Thursday and Friday afternoon we

open one of the daytime thoroughbred meets at Losal, so

I've got a weekend of double duty.

I do the afternoon thoroughbreds into the nighttime quarter

horses, so by golly I'll be I'll be looking for a decent rest

come come the the end of that. No, that's exactly right.

Maybe a nice plate of tacos. Well, Michael, so nice to meet

you. Say hi to Jose and all the folks

out there at Los Alamitos and thanks so much for jumping on.

My absolute pleasure. Good on you.

Thank you. All right.

There you go. Michael Rodo be called the races

here. Appreciate him jumping on with

us. Audra, Bow and Co, Audi, ESPN

680 and 105. What a great voice to be calling

races. There he goes.

That's my guy. Well, Michael's still here.

This you can, you can compliment him directly.

How about Michael? You had a great voice man, can't

wait to listen. There very kind of you, Zach.

There you go. I'd like to bend an elbow with

you one day mate. Let's do it.

As we stay down Under. There you get zacked out here,

there you are, all four. Well there you go.

Well Michael, appreciate it. I'll be out of blind school for

lunch tomorrow, 10 to new doing the show, so you're certainly

welcome to come join me on the 1st Friday of full time college

football this weekend. You've been over half your life

with the states here Michael. You got a college football team,

you USC guy. No, no, I OK.

I didn't really come through the college system here, so it's not

something I've latched onto to take.

Yeah, that's fair enough. All right, I thought I'd try,

but there you go. Thanks to Michael Rhoda and

certainly to all the folks here at Kentucky Downs for having us

out our 12th annual trip for ESPN Louisville Day at Kentucky

Down. See, racing starts today in

about an hour and a half, so get your wagers in today wherever

you do your wagering. I'm Louis Rabo, will be back

tomorrow. Full previews of the college

football weekend. And of course, we will talk with

Danny Brewer. 10:20 tomorrow. A Little Pacific Classic preview

on the program tomorrow. We'll do it then.

Enjoy the weather, get outside, talk to you then.