NBC yesterday named Monmouth Park and Gulfstream Park race announcer Larry Collmus its announcer for this year's Triple Crown races, according to Matt Hegarty of the DAILY RACING FORM. Collmus replaces Tom Durkin, the "longtime New York race caller who elected to step aside from the Triple Crown broadcasts as of this year." Collmus said that as part of his preparation for the Kentucky Derby broadcast, he is "going to review all of Durkin's calls for the races." Collmus added that "calling the Derby's 20-horse field is an intimidating proposition." He has "already started memorizing the colors of the silks for the potential entries, and imagining runnings of the field in his head" (DRF.com, 4/27). Collmus added of replacing Durkin, "It's going to be a daunting task. The most memorable calls in racing are Tom's" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 4/28). In N.Y., Joe Drape in a front-page piece reports Durkin before last year's Kentucky Derby was "undergoing hypnosis in the hope of conquering his performance anxiety." It had developed into a "debilitating anxiety by 2005," and Durkin this week finally "surrendered ... after calling the Derby 13 times, 9 of them for NBC." Durkin: "It's something I have dealt with a long, long time and the cumulative effect finally got to me." Drape notes Durkin will "continue to call other races," but his "decision to leave the Triple Crown is no small loss" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/28).
