For Collmus and Imbriale, calling this year's Belmont Stakes will be a new experience

ELMONT, N.Y. – For the past five years, Larry Collmus and John Imbriale have shared the announcer’s booth on Belmont Stakes Day. Collmus would call the majority of the races, including the Belmont, while Imbriale would call the races following the Belmont.

Saturday, Collmus and Imbriale will be among the few people even allowed on the grounds of Belmont Park, each one calling the race for a different audience. Collmus, as the race-caller for NBC, will describe the action for a national television audience. Imbriale, who is calling his first Belmont Park meet as the full-time New York Racing Association announcer, will be heard by those watching on a variety of advance-deposit wagering platforms that show the track feed.

Neither one’s call will be heard by a live audience because no fans or owners are permitted to attend Belmont Park due to COVID-19-related restrictions. That protocol has been in place since racing resumed here on June 3 and will likely continue through the end of the meet on July 12.

This was not how Imbriale envisioned his first Belmont Stakes call.

“I guess I’m a pretty big jinx,” Imbriale said. “The distance changes, the [Triple Crown race order] changes, no fans. You got to go with the hand that’s dealt you.”

This will be the 10th Belmont Stakes for Collmus, who took over the Triple Crown announcer’s job from Tom Durkin in 2011. Collmus became NYRA’s lead track announcer in 2015, but negotiations on a new contract fell through last fall and he was not retained. On Wednesday, it was announced that Collmus would be calling the Del Mar summer meet.

“It’ll be a different feel coming back to Belmont Park than it’s ever been,” Collmus said. “But I’m looking forward, as always, to working with the great folks at NBC and calling my 10th Belmont stakes.”

Collmus will have a different vantage point for this year’s Belmont. He will be calling the race from a camera platform on the third floor, on the finish line. NBC will be on air from 2:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Collmus will be calling races 6 through 10 for a national audience.

“I’ll be there by myself calling the races,” Collmus said.

Collmus called the two most recent Triple Crown winners in the Belmont – American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018. This year, the Belmont will be the first leg of the Triple Crown, with the Derby having been moved to Sept. 5 and the Preakness to Oct. 3.

“The way I’m approaching it is it’s the kick-off to the Triple Crown that has finally begun,” Collmus said. “The distance, the date, the order, everything is completely different this year.”

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He said the lack of an ontrack audience will only be noticeable to him right before and right after the race is run.

“Leading up to the race every year, as the horses approach the gate for the Belmont Stakes and the field is right in front of the stands, the place just keeps getting louder and louder and louder and you do feed off the energy of that as the horses go into the gate,” Collmus said. “Once the race starts, the race starts, and then it’ll be bizarre when the race is over and you don’t hear anything again.”

Because the Belmont distance has been changed from 1 1/2 miles to 1 1/8 miles, the start of the race goes from right in front of the announcers to the farthest point of the track. The 1 1/8-mile races start out of a chute on the backstretch.

“I think it’ll be fine,” Collmus said. “If there are a couple of spots that’ll be a little difficult, I’ll have hi-def monitors. I don’t anticipate any problems.”

Imbriale said the distance change could pose challenges.

“You always worry coming out of chute that you’re going to miss a little bit of a hesitant start for somebody,” Imbriale said. “That’s the concern at a mile and a half versus a mile and an eighth.”