Tom Durkin Calls His Last Race

Some seven or eight summers ago I came to the Saratoga Race Course with a friend.  Which is about all I remember about the day.

I don't remember what day of the week it was.  I don't remember what month it was.  I don't remember what year it was.

I remember the name of my date, I remember it not going as well as my 18 or 19-year-old self might have hoped, and I remember the stretch run of one race from that day - a horse named Pizza kicking away from the field en route to victory, and Tom Durkin, the clever Saratoga Race Course caller bellowing out, "That's-a-nice-a-Pizza," as the horse crossed the wire.

I remember the line drawing smiles and laughter from the crowd I remember nothing else about, and I remember being reminded, again, why we all love Tom Durkin.

For 24 years, Durkin has been the voice of Saratoga, with his rare blend of classical education, blue-collar humor, unique charm, and thrilling excitability echoing throughout its expansive grounds - evidenced by calls like Pizza's, or the famous "Arrrrr" wins, or the fog race at Aqueduct, or Ready Echo's maiden place, or the 2012 Travers dead heat.

Or any of the other calls I lack the requisite column inches to include.

Tom Durkin has become a legend at Saratoga - and with good reason.  He was every bit a part of the "Spa" experience as the horses, and the dixieland jazz bands, and the track itself.

On Sunday, he called his last race, stepping away from the microphone with - in true Tom Durkin fashion - a perfect blend of opposites: a touching speech, a bit of classical music, and a t-shirt cannon.  He'll be replaced, next summer, by the more than capable Larry Collmus, but it won't be the same, because it won't be Tom.

"It's not the call that makes the race, it's the race that makes the call," Durkin told me humbly earlier this week.  And while that may be true for some, it wasn't true for him.

Pizza's win at Saratoga wasn't anything spectacular.  The horse didn't go on to great fame, the race is not one you'll see on a highlight reel of racing's great moments.  It was, I found at after research, a routine Thursday afternoon, $40,000 maiden claiming race - like the dozens of other mid-level claiming races that litter the Spa's August cards.

It was a forgettable race.

But it became a life-long memory for me.

Because of Tom.

Because of the incomparable Tom Durkin.