Mirahmadi's first Breeders' Cup call brings him full circle

ARCADIA, Calif. – The man in the announcer’s booth at Santa Anita this weekend can trace his affection for racing to the inaugural Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park in 1984.

Back then, Frank Mirahmadi was a 17-year-old high schooler fascinated by the runners, the sport, the pageantry, and the pari-mutuel activity surrounding horse racing.

“The first Breeders’ Cup was one of my favorite memories of life,” Mirahmadi said while watching morning training on Monday.

Mirahmadi, 52, attended the 1984 Breeders’ Cup with his father, George, an electrical engineer.

“It was a very special day,” Mirahmadi said. “I remember him buying the tickets. He wanted to make it a special occasion. Our seats were in the clubhouse, just past the finish line.”

From there, Mirahmadi watched horses such as Chief’s Crown win the Juvenile, Lashkari take the Turf, and Royal Heroine win the Mile – three of his favorite memories. It was an eye-opening experience for Mirahmadi, watching horses from throughout the nation, and the world, run in the now-famous race series.

“You have certain memories that are there forever,” he said.

Eight years later, Mirahmadi remembers calling his first race at Hollywood Park on Christmas Eve, 1992, as a guest announcer.

Mirahmadi grew up in Beverly Hills. Following racing in the 1980s in Southern California was different than today. Before the advent of the internet, racing fans had a nightly replay program and a weekly magazine show on Los Angeles independent television to follow the action, significant coverage in several competing daily newspapers, and even KWIN, a low-wattage AM radio signal that provided race coverage to the area immediately surrounding Santa Anita through the afternoon.

Mirahmadi became an admirer of a young South African track announcer named Trevor Denman by listening to KWIN.

“I’d listen to his insight on the races,” he said. “He’d tell you what looked good on the track.”

As he told that story, Mirahmadi paused a conversation to stifle a sneeze. He was about 50 yards away from the outside rail, but his allergies flare when he’s around horses.

“I wish I was allergic to the windows,” he said.

In the early 1990s, again before the Internet, Mirahmadi briefly worked for a 900-telephone service that provided race results and recreated calls of races. Mirahmadi jumped into the job, and called the recreated races impersonating several famous announcers and sportscasters of the time.

He said there were five versions of the 1993 Santa Anita Handicap, won by Sir Beaufort.

“Press one to hear Phil Georgeff, two for Dave Johnson,” he said. “I did the Big Cap in five voices – Harry Henson, Trevor Denman, and Marv Albert.”

At the start of his career, Mirahmadi traveled the country, calling at venues as small as Atokad Park in Nebraska. Along the way, he was the back-up caller to the popular Luke Kruytbosch at Turf Paradise, called the last two weeks of the 1999 Ruidoso Downs meeting, and spent years calling the Northern California fairs and at Golden Gate Fields.

Mirahmadi began his current job at Santa Anita on a full-time basis last December. He also spends summers at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

This weekend, he will be the on-track and simulcast announcer, while Larry Collmus will describe the action for viewers on NBC. For Mirahmadi, the occasion is 35 years in the making.

“This is huge,” he said. “This is the biggest opportunity of my whole career.”