For the past 30 years of his 43-year career, track announcer Tom Durkin has borne witness to many of Thoroughbred racing greatest moments. To Thoroughbred racing’s benefit, and at times entertainment and delight, Durkin has provided through his race calls the ultimate soundtrack – word pictures that contained the essence of those moments. That so many of his calls conveyed, in bursts of spontaneous eloquence, what we all felt as it was unfolding before us is testimony to his greatness. Durkin will make his last call for the Spinaway on the Aug. 31 card at Saratoga.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Seth Van Dyke, a former jockey whose son, Drayden, is one of the leading riders in Southern California, died Monday in Florida, Drayden Van Dyke said Wednesday.

Drayden Van Dyke said the cause of death was an apparent suicide. A native of Fremont, Neb., Seth Van Dyke, who was known by his nickname of “Squirt,” had worked as an exercise rider and a jockeys’ room valet in recent years at tracks in Florida and Kentucky. He was 43.

Seth Van Dyke’s Facebook page was full of condolences Wednesday. He was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed fishing and hunting.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard has been fined $2,000 and assigned one point under Delaware’s multiple medication violation system for two separate positives for the muscle relaxant methocarbamol at Delaware Park this summer, according to stewards’ rulings.

EDMONTON, Alberta – The Spinmeister will break from post 9 as the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Saturday. Post positions were chosen by representatives of the 11 horses entered in the 1 3/8-mile race at a brunch held at Northlands on Wednesday.

Mike Schayer, a brother of Joshua Schayer, one of the owners of The Spinmeister, made the call for the Kentucky-bred son of Heatseeker, who is coming off a 6 1/2-length romp in the $50,000 Count Lathum at Northlands on July 19. The Spinmeister is trained by Rob Chabot.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – As with most anything else, this is the logical knee-jerk solution to the alarmingly short field for the Arlington Million: Throw money at it.

But they tried that before, and it didn’t work.

In 2000, the purse for the Million was raised to $2 million. It was the only time in race history the purse has been anything but $1 million.

The field size for that 2000 running? A mere seven, which is still the record for the fewest number of starters since the Million was inaugurated in 1981.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Larry Collmus will succeed Tom Durkin as the track announcer for the New York Racing Association – eventually.

On Wednesday, NYRA announced that Collmus will become the primary track announcer for Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga but will not start until April, the week leading up to the Grade 1 Wood Memorial. Collmus will call the month of April at Aqueduct, the Belmont spring and fall meets as well as Saratoga. John Imbriale will call the races at Aqueduct with the exception of the month of April.

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association has added three stakes for statebreds to its schedule for this year. There will now be 21 Pennsylvania-bred stakes this year, six more than in 2013.

Parx, Penn National, and Presque Isle Downs will each host one of the new stakes. The stakes will each have a purse of $75,000 and offer a 25 percent bonus to Pennsylvania-sired horses finishing in the top three.

Finger Lakes has canceled two $50,000 stakes, the Tin Cup Chalice and the Shesastonecoldfox, to preserve purse money. The stakes were for New York-bred 2-year-olds and were scheduled for Nov. 1.

They were the final races on the 2014 Finger Lakes stakes schedule, which will now conclude Oct. 4. The 162-day meet continues through Dec. 5.

George Nicholaw, a commissioner and chairman of the California Horse Racing Board in the 1990s and one of the most respected broadcasting executives in state history, died last Saturday at age 86, according to a report on Los Angeles radio station KNX, where Nicholaw worked as general manager for 36 years.

Nicholaw served two four-year terms on the CHRB, from 1992-2000. For the final year of his tenure, he was the board’s chairman.

Ten stakes have been added to the Laurel Park stakes schedule that was announced July 15. Five of the stakes are for Maryland-bred and/or -sired horses, and the other five are for Virginia-bred and/or -sired runners.

The Maryland-restricted races are the All Brandy Stakes (Sept. 6), the Jameela Stakes (Sept. 27), the Jennings Handicap (Dec. 6), the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship (Dec. 26), and the Maryland Juvenile Championship (Dec. 27).

The stakes will offer purses of $125,000 for Maryland-bred and -sired horses or $100,000 for Maryland-breds.