Meet Tom Durkin (before he says “Goodbye”)

Photo courtesy of Bob Coglianese Photos

Tom Durkin will make his final race call on August 31, 2014 at Saratoga racetrack.  For those of us who have followed him throughout his stellar career on the NYRA circuit, racing without Tom Durkin is going to take some getting used to.  We have been privileged to witness a true master plying his craft with a unique style that is best described as theatrical.  In a recent interview with Tom, he said “I get the best seat in the house for the greatest racing. And, there’s a new show every 25 minutes.”

Having always been impressed with his mastery of vocabulary and witty turn of phrase, I asked Tom if his race calls are spontaneous? He replied, “No, they are by no means entirely spontaneous. I do all sorts of preparation.”  At this point, he handed me a medium sized notebook filled with handwritten notes, including countless words and phrases.  He said, “This is about half of the things I’ve written down. My proper book, which I keep at home, is double that size and I try to read through it on a daily basis. So, some of the stuff is extemporaneous … but, the genesis of it comes from this notebook.  And, I still add stuff to it.  For example, I had never used the word ‘flagging’ before, so on May 17, 2014 I used the word ‘flagging.’ ”  As he tells me this, he points to a recent entry in his notebook.

Following this comment, I immediately think of Tom’s call of the 1994 Travers Stakes, when he famously said “There’s cause for Concern” as a horse named Concern came from far back in the race to challenge and nearly defeat Holy Bull.  In a prior interview I did with Larry Collmus, he identified this race as one of his all time favorite race calls.  The video replay is below if you’d like to hear the call again, and witness the thrilling finish.

I asked Tom if he thinks of phrases ahead of time that might include a horse’s name.  He replied, “Yea, but I never get married to it.  Because, 99.9% of the stuff I never use. And, it’s got to be extemporaneous, and it’s got to be truly felt. It can’t be hoke.  A person has to rely on and trust their own taste, because you can sound pretty stupid if you do something that’s too obvious.”

All of this talk about preparation and putting on a new show every 25 minutes led me to the following series of questions.

Do you happen to have a theatrical background?

I do, I studied theater when I was in college. You’ve got to learn how to get up in front of people and perform. It also helped me a great deal in the creative process. I have a creative process that I work on all the time. In theater, when you work on a character, you work on that creative process. I cannot explain it. It kind of starts from an idea and you let that idea roll around, and then you go over the top, and then you pare back … and form a creative box, with drawers that you can pick stuff from … from time to time. The theater helped me do that. I was in seventeen theater productions in college.

How important was learning how to memorize theatrical lines?

Theater certainly helped me a great deal, there’s no question about it. I once did a 16-minute dialog. So, memorization is a big thing.

The memorization is the first thing you have to learn how to do in this job and I was thinking, why do I have this particular knack? And I think it’s because I took Latin and I was very good in Latin in high school. I was never a good student in things I wasn’t interested in, but for some reason or another I was interested in Latin and it’s all about memorizing. Taking Latin did a couple of things. It really made me learn how to memorize and also, my language skills are good. And, I pick up languages pretty well.

Are you multilingual?

At various times I’ve been … my Italian is fairly passable.  In the past, I was able to speak German, French, and Spanish. But, from pure lack of use, I’ve forgotten all of that.

It always sounds like you are having fun … that you truly enjoy what you are doing.

I certainly do.  Fun is not the word I would assign to it. I’m interested, and one of the very important things my college drama teacher (Kelly Collum) taught me … drilled into me … was “energy, energy, energy.” So, I’m energetic, and that’s probably why it sounds like I’m having fun. When I switch on that microphone, then I’m on. Even when I’m just reading the scratches.

At this point I became curious about hearing some of Tom’s thoughts about his career in retrospect and his plans for the future.  Tom explained that he is not a very retrospective or introspective person.  When I asked him if he wished to thank anyone in particular that helped him along the way, he replied “That list is soooo long.  It’s in the hundreds and I can name everyone of them. I got pushed along in the right direction by a lot of people.  One domino fell onto the other and here I am.”  So I joked with him by saying, “So you didn’t do this entirely on your own?”  To which he answered, “Absolutely not.  I did it in spite of myself in fact!”

He did reply to a couple of retrospective questions however; starting with, do you have any regrets?

The main regret is, I could become fanatical about it. Particularly the Breeders’ Cup and Triple Crown stuff. You know, devote too much time and energy, where I probably could have done something else. And, like I said, 99% of the work goes out, but it’s a cumulative effect I suppose. It’s not a real big regret, but if I could do things over, I’d probably have been less fanatical about it.

Was that because of the importance or historical significance of the moment?

No. It’s fear of failure. It’s just a fear of screwing up. That’s why I dropped off of the Triple Crown job, because I didn’t want to deal with the anxiety anymore. You know, if you and I are talking, I can slip up and make a gaffe, or have a slip of the tongue … but you do that when you’re calling the Breeders’ Cup Classic … and like the nuns said, “That goes on your permanent record Tom Durkin.”

What or whom do you think you’re going to miss the most?

The only thing I do worry about is – this has been a passion for me, and that’s going to leave a pretty big hole. A big part of the passion of my life is doing this, and I’m not going to have that. That’s going to leave a hole somewhere, that I’ll have to fill, but I don’t know what I’m going to fill it with.

Do you think you’ll remain connected with racing?

Certainly. I don’t know if I’ll work in racing in any capacity.  It’s certainly not going to be a full-time capacity … or even if at all. But, I’ll certainly be connected. You know, I just love the game too much to not be around it you know.

Do you see yourself just going down to the races and hanging out in Saratoga like an average fan?

I would say it might be a frequent pastime. I live less than a mile away, down Nelson Avenue.

At this point we switched gears.  I explained to Tom that our website is all about educating and entertaining fans in racing, including learning more about the people that help to put on the show.  His immediate reply was, “There’s not enough of that actually.”  I then asked Tom if he can see himself playing a role in attracting new fans to the sport? He answered, “Absolutely.  I love the history of racing, including the architecture (Saratoga in particular).  And I enjoy public speaking … so, yea I think I could be very useful in that way.”  Then he added, “I do think horse racing fans are made one at a time.  You need to go with somebody, sit down with them for a day, have them explain it to you, and answer every question they have.”

Tom continued, “A guy from Kentucky said if you can get people to touch a horse, then you’ve got them.  You know, just touch a horse.  And get women involved.  When I was working for NBC, their research showed that the majority of the people who watched the Triple Crown are women. So we made the first hour of the show about the event, the fashion, the food, the society, the horses … women are certainly interested in horses, they love horses in a different way than men do.”

“They (NBC) used to send me out to get on the Today Show, very heavily watched by women. And women have money now. It’s not like your grandma.  One thing they did in Japan that made it so popular over there, is they had ladies night, where young ladies were admitted free and given free drinks … and where do you think the men went? They had huge crowds there.”

As the first race drew near, I knew my time with the legendary race caller Tom Durkin was coming to a close.  I could see his game face starting to come on.  But, before I left, I had to ask him what happens after the last race call on August 31^st?  He chuckled, and replied, “I’m not sure. Beyond having a beer after the races that night, I don’t have any solid plans.”  Then he added, “But I’m not going to be a retired person in the classic sense.”

I’m sure that I speak for many people when I say, Thank you Tom.  For your style, for your humility, for your candor, for the pleasant memories we have etched in our minds as a result of your work. You have touched so many of us, and we are forever thankful.

Readers, please feel free to add comments of personal favorites of Tom Durkin race calls, anecdotes, etc.

FOOTNOTE: During the interview, I resisted the urge to ask Tom if he had any favorite race calls.  I figured he has been asked that question a thousand times and was probably tired of answering it.  So, I decided to close this article with a video replay of my personal favorite … about the mother-in-law, that just won’t “go away.”  Enjoy.

By Neal Benoit