Calo named race caller at Turfway Park

Tony Calo, the race caller at Finger Lakes racetrack in upstate New York for the past 15 years, has been hired as the new caller at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., the track’s owner, Churchill Downs Inc., announced Monday.

Calo will replace Jimmy McNerney, who is returning to a job as a jockey’s agent this winter. Calo will start in his new position when the Turfway meet opens Nov. 29.

A native of California, Calo began his race-calling career in 1997 at Arapahoe Park in Colorado. He has called race meets at the defunct Bay Meadows and at Golden Gate Fields, both in Northern California, and was hired to take over full-time calling duties at Finger Lakes in 2008.

“I’m very honored and thankful to everyone at Turfway Park and Churchill Downs Incorporated for offering me this position,” Calo said in a press release. “Turfway has a storied history in Northern Kentucky and is quickly rising to one of the top tracks during the winter season.”

Churchill bought Turfway Park in late 2019 and has spent millions of dollars building a casino at the track. Subsidies from gambling devices at Turfway and elsewhere on the Kentucky circuit have led to a doubling of purses in the state over the past eight years.

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