Nathan Klein began his first week as the track announcer at Penn National on Tuesday, calling six races on the evening card. It was a historic moment for the 21-year-old, but he would rather see it as one among many. “I am the youngest [track announcer] in North America, and for now, I get to appreciate that,” Klein said. “But it’s also a good reminder that you’re not going to be like this forever. This is just one point in my life, so I better enjoy it while I can.” For Klein, who grew up without a home track in North Carolina, much of his life has been spent meeting the sport on its terms. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program, he has visited more than 50 racing venues and said he plans to find many more, keeping a to-do list of nearby tracks, meets, and fair circuits. Having taken this position at Penn National, Klein said he is still coming to terms with the idea of joining the racing establishment and earning the support that comes with it. During Penn Mile festivities last week, the young announcer earned congratulatory messages from the likes of fellow track announcers Larry Collmus, Fred Lipkin, and Jessica Paquette, and he will soon take his place alongside them as a Pennsylvania racing broadcaster. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “It was quite a kind of full-circle moment,” Klein said. “There was even one moment where I’m interviewing [Collmus], but he goes out of his way to congratulate me on the job. And I’m like, I think I’ve really done it.” But while his new position might bring newfound prestige, Klein said he never wanted a platform merely to have a platform. More than a track announcer, he said he wishes to be an “ambassador for racing,” a more nebulous role he carries with just as much weight. From his earliest days producing content on YouTube, often under the name Sketchy the Horse Guy, he has hoped to reintroduce horse racing to mainstream audiences. “Racing is so esoteric,” Klein said. “Whenever I see new horse-racing podcasts or horse-racing content, I think, ‘I’ll watch that, but would someone new to horse racing want to watch this?’ And the answer is almost always no, unfortunately. A lot of the podcasts only seem interesting to a very small [number] of people. Creating bigger, wider things that can reach more people is one way to go for it, and that’s why I leaned so hard into it.” For his final project at the University of Arizona, Klein made a presentation analyzing several video games centered around horse racing, including Umamusume, a popular Japanese video game and anime series in which real-life racehorses are reincarnated as “horse girls.” American racing fans may recognize several descendants of Sunday Silence as heavily featured characters in the franchise. The video of Klein’s presentation has received more than 250,000 views on YouTube. Klein said the premise of Umamusume, like many niche interests and emerging media, has proven too unfamiliar for many in the American racing industry to embrace, even as droves of people regularly attend races at Santa Anita and other tracks cosplaying as their favorite Umamusume characters. “In these Uma circles, I hear a lot of the same stories of, ‘I just thought of it as an old man thing,’ or ‘I didn’t even know I had a racetrack,’ ” Klein said. “I think it’s partially due to a lack of trying.” :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  Klein may not encounter quite as many anime fans in Grantville, Pa., but he said he intends to continue meeting potential racing fans at the crossroads of their interests. Like many racing fans, he was introduced to the sport through an older family member, but he hopes to find ways to extend outreach beyond mere tradition. “I think as a racetrack announcer, no matter who you are and what you do, you are not just the voice of the horses, but the voice and representative of the racetrack,” Klein said. “And you can’t just be a racetrack announcer anymore. You need to be a lot of things. You have to be adaptable.” There are a lot of ways to call a person young, and Klein has been met with plenty of awe and derision along the way. Some are shocked to hear he’s 21, assuming him to be even younger. He takes those comments in stride, explaining that he’s used to being a “racing kid.” The comments that catch him off guard are those that refer to the long road ahead. With such an early start, Klein has the opportunity to make a decades-long impact on horse racing. He said it doesn’t feel real to him. His ambitions are grand, but they won’t happen at once. When Klein stepped into the booth at Penn National on Tuesday, he tried his best to momentarily push those thoughts away. In a swirling time of firsts, he will serve as track announcer, and for now, he’s the youngest one out there. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.