Collmus moves to Gulfstream, Imbriale returns to Aqueduct

Track announcer Larry Collmus has been tabbed to call the races at Gulfstream Park this winter. The 22-year veteran has been the

announcer at Suffolk Downs since 1992 and Monmouth Park since 1994.

"I'm very excited about becoming part of the Gulfstream Park team," the

40-year-old Baltimore native said. "The opportunity to call the outstanding

races that Gulfstream offers is an announcer's dream. It's something I'm very

much looking forward to."

Collmus began calling races at the tender age of 18 when Chick Lang Sr. took

him on as the back-up track announcer in Maryland. His first full-time

announcing job came at Birmingham Race Course in Alabama just two years later.

Since then, Collmus has called races at Golden Gate

Fields from 1988-91 and the Northern California fairs at Vallejo and Santa Rosa

as well as the Bay Meadows Fair from 1990-93. He has also been the race caller

at the past two Aqueduct winter meets.

Gulfstream's meet begins January 3, 2007.

In related

news, John Imbriale, who retired as the New York Racing Association's (NYRA)

back-up track announcer in 2005, will return to take over race calling at

Aqueduct's upcoming winter meet in 2007.

"I am very excited about working back at Aqueduct," he said. "I have a lot of

fond memories, and I look forward to seeing some old friends."

Imbriale joined NYRA in 1979 after winning a contest for aspiring track

announcers. Part of the prize for that contest was a job in NYRA's press office.

He eventually became the liaison for a television station that put on a weekly

Thoroughbred racing program starring late trainer Frank Wright and Charlsie

Cantey. Imbriale also was at Arlington Park for a time as a replacement for that

track's legendary announcer Phil Georgeff.

NYRA's regular track announcer, Tom Durkin, will continue to call races

through New Year's Day, and Imbriale will pick up the reins when racing returns

to Aqueduct on January 4, 2007.