Larry Lederman has been calling races since the 1970's when those in the grandstand around him were his only audience and eventually went on to a full-time job at Atlantic City Racecourse in the 1980's. He had the unique opportunity to have his voice immortalized in the 1993 movie A Bronx Tale as a track announcer. Lederman has been living with a brain tumor for over 10 years and despite the disease, the 64-year-old is remarkably upbeat and positive.  On Thursday (12/2) he will call the races at The Meadowlands as a guest announcer, so this seemed like the perfect time to sit down with the man and discuss his journey in the sport. You worked at DRF once. How did you get started in horse racing? My father worked really hard, he had a store in Manhattan and my parents would like to go to the track. When I got old enough, I started to go along to Yonkers and Roosevelt. That's how I got interested. I used to call the races in the stands into a tape recorder and then someone got me a job at DRF. Jack Wilson called the charts for DRF and I was his call-taker. How did you get into being a track announcer? There was an announcing contest at NYRA in 1977. The story was that John Imbriale won the contest, but I actually won. They offered me next to nothing to work there. It was one of those offers you had to refuse. I worked for Marshall Cassidy, who I became very good friends with, and I worked for the Racing Form.  Eventually I moved to New Jersey in the early 1980s and worked at several tracks. I was offered a job at the Atlantic City track; that was the first full-time announcing job I had. Later on [Bob] Quigley offer me the job at Garden State. Things got pretty good after that. You've called regularly at Atlantic City, Freehold and Garden State among other tracks. Which was your favorite? They always say your first one is the best one, but there really wasn't any favorite because I really liked what I was doing. How many people can say they go to work every day and enjoyed their job? The easiest track to call was the half-mile track at Freehold.  Do you prefer calling Standardbreds or Thoroughbreds? Calling Standardbreds is much easier. I've said you can do it blindfolded, face-down. In a harness race there are only like 10 different things that can happen. In the Thoroughbreds a horse can go from twelfth to first and you have to be a lot more alert. Also, the harness guys never change their colors and always wear the same pajamas.  What is another difference between calling the two breeds? The verbiage is a lot different. Some people in harness use the term running fourth and that is wrong because if they are running that means they are making a break. Regardless of the breed, there is a time and a place for everything and I tried to have a little fun with it because it is an entertainment sport. Favorite dinner meal? Snack? Texas Roadhouse, a basic steak. I don't even mind TV Dinners. I'm like Oscar Madison, I'm not picky. For snack, cashew nuts. What is your favorite track to visit? Why? The Fairgrounds in New Orleans. They brought me down for Mardi Gras. Bangor in Maine was nice. It is a different world up there. Cal Expo was fun and different.  ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter What was/is your favorite big event in racing? Why? The Caesars International when I called it for CBS while working with Jim Kaat and Tim Ryan. I said to myself, 'Larry don't blow it' because that was the first time I was on nationally. That was in Atlantic City.  In 2011 you announced that you have a malignant brain tumor. More than 10 years later, how are you doing? Very dicey right now. I took like every dose of everything I could get for treatment and I was forced to retire because I couldn't even stay awake anymore because of all the medication. It went into remission for like six-and-a-half years and it came back again like three-and-a-half years ago. Recently it just made another appearance. We fight on.  I lost my wife and my daughter between that time. My wife passed away August 4, 2014 and my daughter passed away about three years ago. She was a good girl. When I lost her, everything else paled in comparison.  Does it put everything into perspective that it's been 10 years, you've gone through all these hardships and you are still here? I don't know. Thursday [Dec. 2 at The Meadowlands] will only be the second day I've called in two years. We'll see what comes out and hopefully it makes sense.  Does the thought of calling again get the blood flowing for you? I don't want to embarrass myself. I think I'll be ok to get by, but I get very tired very fast. I'm not nervous, but I was a little apprehensive to do it. The people at The Meadowlands have been very good to me. Jeff Gural has been very kind, along with Jason [Settlemoir], [Dave] Brower, [Dave] Little and all of those guys. They asked if I wanted to do it and I figured as long as I could still hit the ball it was worth giving it a shot. Everyone there is very classy. Is announcing like riding a bike? I'd like to say it is but I'm not sure. You get older. It could be tough to memorize because I am on heavy medication. What I have, people don't usually live more than four years. This has been 10 years for me. The line I always used with the Racing Form a long time ago is 'I'm living on borrowed time but I must have a lot of credit.'  I can still think fast. There was a while there when I couldn't and it was getting me really frustrated, but knock wood, it has come back. I've always stayed positive and looked at it as someone has it worse than I do.  What is your favorite sport to watch? Team? I'm a sports addict -- baseball, football, basketball. Hockey I can't get into until the playoffs. I'm a FIOS baby. If the Olympics had an event for changing the channels, I'd win the Gold, Silver and Bronze. I'm a Yankee man. What is one thing about you most fans/bettors don't know? I don't want to sound like a pompous ass, but I'm very compassionate and caring. I'd rather give away everything than have it myself. I try to do whatever I can for good people. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Not as good as the great old days. What is the best advice you've ever gotten about calling a harness race? Don't start predicting winners during a race. Don't say that a horse is getting a good trip and is going to win. That's about the worst thing you can do. Call what you see, but use your experience and say the horse is full of pace, because that is just a fact. To me there is no such thing as a perfect trip, especially on a mile track.  Best announcer you heard in your career? In his heyday, Jack Lee. I idolized him growing up. More recently, and I guess I'm being a little prejudiced because I'm a friend of his, Tom Durkin. He's the best announcer I've ever heard.  Do you have a favorite race call from your time behind the mic? My biggest moments were when I called nationally on CBS a couple of times and I did the Breeders Crown from Garden State on ESPN. Obviously I did things a little different than most people. It was a lot of fun. I had a good run. You are known for being creative in your race calls. Do you have a favorite from those "creations"? The one that everyone remembers is 'It's not a battle, it's a war.' I always liked 'Into the highway of heroes or into the boulevard of broken dreams'. There was once a horse named Dominatrix and I said the horse 'was under the whip and loved every minute of it.' There was also a horse named Pizza Joe. It was a close photo and I said he 'won by a slice.' I didn't even plan that. Do you plan some of your tag lines? Sometimes I do but you can't force yourself to say something that doesn't happen. If I see a name and I catch something during a race, yeah. Sometimes if I'm watching a game I'll throw in a baseball score. I've done a lot of stuff no one else would do, but there is a time and a place for everything. There are things you can't talk about, like when the Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson stuff was going on, you don't go there. You have to be discreet about what you do. Like there was a line I used to use, 'It is too late to call the bomb squad because the board already exploded.' You can't say that right now because everyone would get nervous. One that sticks out for me at Atlantic City was "Scrape off the crumbs and spread on the butter because Burnt Toast is home". Did stuff like that just come natural for you? Yeah. Sometimes it would just pop in my head during the race. It is supposed to be an entertainment thing, not that I call for laughs, because I'm not. The main thing is to call the right race and be as accurate as you can. How often is racing on your mind? I've been to the track once since August 19, 2020. I live on a fixed income and stopped betting because I figured it made more sense to pay the bills since the government is nice enough to deliver them.  You also had a taste of national exposure with the movie A Bronx Tale. What was that experience like? It was the best, really a lot of fun. I got called up by the producer John Kilik and he had heard that I could do imitations and wanted me to do Frank Capossela. I went down and I did Capossela and they told me to 'say this and say that' but I told them that he would never say those things and it wouldn't serve any purpose for me to imitate the guy when he wouldn't say those things. He said 'what would you do?' and I did it. Then he said f@@@ Capossela, do you! I'm listening to a guy who won Oscar's and Academy Awards, so that was pretty cool. I met Chazz Palminteri and he was a really nice man. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? I would say the same thing that Jeff Gural says, stop with the tucks. It takes away from the race. People who bet horses are cynical. As soon as the race start they start questioning what the drivers are doing. I would stop with giving tucks. How do you view the future of harness racing? I don't want to sound like I'm kissing his behind, but I think without Gural there wouldn't even be a sport. The image of the sport was terrible and I think he's help clean a lot of it up.  What I don't like to see is that it has become a game of the same 30 or 40 owners winning all of the big races, who buy all of the expensive horses, who breed all of the good horses, who win all of the big races. It's like the little guy with the $10,000 claimer doesn't have a chance anymore. The business just isn't spread out enough. Time for the stretch drive.  Best Horse you ever saw: Seattle Slew -- I loved him. He had a heart of gold and didn't want to lose. If you got into a street fight with him, he didn't want to let you by. Best Driver: Buddy Gilmour -- he didn't even need a whip. Best Trainer: H. Allen Jerkins. Favorite TV Show?: It used to be F Troop. Now it is Sunday Morning on CBS that is on from 9:00 to 10:30 [AM]. It is great quality, interesting stories, not opinionated and it lets you think about things that are going on in this world that you never would've unless they covered it.   Trotters or Pacers?: Pacers -- they are more consistent.