Northfield: Announcer Livengood proving to be a hidden gem

An announcer can give a racetrack a unique identity. Familiarity with a certain voice or style is important when building or maintaining a fan base. When the surprising news came out towards the end of 2022 that longtime announcer Ayers Ratliff was leaving his position, the search began to find the next voice of the flying turns.

The debate was on as to what “type” of announcer management wanted. Do they swing for the fences with a big name, like your local team signing a top free agent, or do they go with a younger, less experienced type? I figured with Northfield being a big-league signal in the horse racing world they would opt for the former.

Over the next few months fans were treated to a smorgasbord of announcers, from the reliable Michael Carter to the unique Kevin Decker to the raw but capable Goldsheet Bob to the Director of Racing Dave Bianconi to the iconic Roger Huston to the current biggest name in the industry, captain of the #Senditin army Gabe Prewitt.

Prewitt was the longest tenured of the fill-ins and would be on the top of anyone’s short list. Where he goes people (and handle) follow. Grabbing him full time would prove to be too much of a challenge however, so surprisingly management went in a different direction and landed on the virtually unknown Kenny Livengood.

While I kind of recognized the rather unusual name floating around Facebook, I knew by the number of common friends nothing about him other that he was involved in the racing industry somehow, probably as a fan or gambler. Prewitt mentioned to me that he was the 24-year-old backup announcer at Saratoga Harness and that’s all he knew. Certainly an incomplete résumé considering the amount of competition there would be in landing a busy, year-round, full-time announcing position.

Soon after Livengood was invited to come out to Ohio from his home base in Upstate NY. He was a youthful-looking 24-year-old dropped into a hectic environment in the Northfield Park press box, but he had a certain calmness and maturity about him.

Livengood was tabbed to announce an upcoming race, sort of a real-time audition. Admittedly when he began with the post parade I was underwhelmed, as he sounded a bit vanilla to me. Then the race started and what we were treated to was a sharp, professional race call with a good tempo and smoothness combined with enthusiasm. Undeterred by the unfamiliar surroundings, Livengood nailed it! I remember looking over at assistant race secretary/jack of all trades Michael Carter and we both exclaimed “wow!” as he went on to reply “he killed it!” Livengood was pretty much offered the job on the spot.

When asked if he was surprised to have gotten the job or if he had any reservations about shipping out west, Livengood replied, “I’ve always explained it that one day I just woke up and realized that I would regret not going more than if I took the job and it didn’t work out. I knew that coming here would be the start of hopefully a long career of getting to be at the racetrack and never having to feel like I’m going to work.

“One thing I love about Northfield Park is how it’s unlike any other half-mile track out there. I knew it was a better style of racing out here, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it is. There’s more action in one night of racing than other tracks see in a month. Multiple times a night I say to myself ‘here’s another Northfield scramble’ as the drivers are launching three and four wide down the backstretch. It’s refreshing to see and fun to announce”.

As Livengood is now almost five months into his Northfield Park tenure, I still can’t recall a single instance where he has sounded out of sync or flat-out flubbed a call. I’m pretty impressed how refined he sounds despite minimal experience.

Odds and ends

Over the past year-plus there have been a number of enhancements to the Northfield product, namely the new tote system and graphics with HD broadcast, the new infield tote board complete with video screen to replace the original old-school board (which admittedly I miss), and a significant upgrade with the switch to LED lighting. Also, the track apron underwent a significant change with the erection of a new winner’s circle just to the left of where the existing area was (never really understood the importance of this upgrade, but I’m told it’s now ADA compliant). Lastly, we’re about two months removed now from the complete overhaul of the track surface and the reconfiguring of the pylons/passing lane.

The new track surface was the one change that made me the most nervous as we didn’t know how the track was going to play out. The last thing I wanted to see was a change in the style of racing, which is what makes Northfield such a successful product. Yes, we’ve seen some slower times, which some thought was to be expected, but the first couple of nights things seemed a bit different. Just ask leading driver Aaron Merriman, who looked lost and almost comically frustrated out there. Eventually the horsemen and drivers adjusted to things, and I’m happy to report that in my opinion the racing product is as strong as ever. Hopefully these surface enhancements will help with the drainage and other bad-weather conditions that forced the track into some unfortunate cancellations over the last couple of seasons.