Collmus excited to begin announcing at Churchill
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As a teenager in Maryland, Larry Collmus knew he only wanted to do one thing for a living: call horse races. He would amble around the press boxes of Pimlico and Laurel, mimicking callers such as Jack Lamar, Jack Salter, Ross Morton, Costy Caras, and many more.
“That was a long time ago,” said Collmus, 47, “although I do still walk around doing those imitations for no one in particular.”
Little did Collmus know how far his obsession would take him. Already the voice of NBC Sports for the Triple Crown since 2011, and long entrenched as the caller at Monmouth Park and Gulfstream Park, Collmus will add yet another feather to his cap when taking over at Churchill Downs on Saturday night as the seventh announcer in track history.
“It really is a tremendous honor to come to work at the track recognized as the world’s greatest,” said Collmus. “There are a lot of really great announcers out there, and I’m just glad I’m the one lucky enough to get to call the races here.”
Collmus replaces Mark Johnson, the Briton who called races here for five years following the July 2008 death of longtime caller Luke Kruytbosch.
Collmus was formally introduced Thursday to local media and said he was trying to get over a sinus condition. His voice had a slight nasal sound to it.
“They told me it’s okay to have a cold now, but not [on Kentucky Derby Day] in two weeks,” he joked.
Collmus called his first race at the old Bowie Race Track in 1985, with his first full-time gig coming in 1987 at the Birmingham Turf Club in Alabama. Long-term jobs at Suffolk Downs, Monmouth, and Gulfstream followed.
Besides his work on the Triple Crown for NBC, Collmus began calling Breeders’ Cup races for the network in 2012. He called the entire two-day program last year at Santa Anita.
Collmus will become the third Churchill announcer to call the Derby for both the television and ontrack audiences, following Chic Anderson and Mike Battaglia. Separate calls have been used in other years.
| ANNOUNCER | YEARS |
| Larry Collmus | 2014– |
| Mark Johnson | 2009–13 |
| Luke Kruytbosch | 1999–2008 |
| Kurt Becker | 1997–98 |
| Mike Battaglia | 1978–96 |
| Chic Anderson | 1961–77 |
| Gene Schmidt | 1940–1960 |