Durkin honored at 84th annual Thoroughbred Club of America Testimonial Dinner

Durkin honored at 84th annual Thoroughbred Club of America

Testimonial Dinner

Tom Durkin kept the audience entertained as the Thoroughbred Club of America

honored the acclaimed announcer at its 84th annual Testimonial Dinner on Tuesday

evening at Keeneland Racecourse.

Durkin, the voice of the Breeders' Cup and Triple Crown for many years, paid

tribute to his Irish heritage at the podium.

"I've been blessed with luck," said Durkin, who retired in 2014 after 43

years of calling horse races. "I was born Irish, telling stories infused me with

the gift of gab."

Keeneland will play host to the Breeders' Cup for the first time at the end

of October.

"Enjoy, appreciate the Breeders' Cup of 2015 when the best of the best come

to Keeneland," Durkin told the audience. "Dreams can come true in horse racing."

Sportscaster Tom Hammond, who was hired along with Durkin to work the

inaugural Breeders' Cup broadcast in 1984, provided the introduction.

"Tom revolutionized race calling," Hammond said. "He interjected drama into

race calls, Tom was a drama major."

Born in Chicago in 1950, Durkin began calling races -- Quarter Horse,

Standbred and Thoroughbred -- in the 1970s and credits getting the Hialeah race

caller job in 1981 as a career breakthrough. He was hired by NYRA in 1990 to

call races at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga, and served the same capacity

as well at Gulfstream Park.

Durkin estimates he called more than 80,000 races, with approximately half at

NYRA tracks. He called Breeders' Cup races until 2005 and the Triple Crown races

on television from 2001-11.

"One of the luckiest SOBs on Earth," Durkin said. "Providence has shined upon

me brightly."

Video highlights of his memorable calls included:

Durkin credits his success to the horses, "It's the Irish in me: We love

words, we love horses, we love beer."

And he mentioned the 1988 Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs as one of his

favorite memories.

"The first Breeders' Cup in Kentucky (1988) was the greatest race card ever

assembled. Greatest racing program I've ever been part of, more drama than in

any day in history," Durkin explained.

"(D. Wayne) Lukas won three of seven races, finished a nose second in

another, and finished one-two-three in the Juvenile Fillies. Miesque became the

first repeat winner in Breeders' Cup history, Personal Ensign, the midnight

classic with Alysheba."

With unique flair, Durkin brought a sense of excitement to race calls for

more than four decades. His distinguished service to the sport will be

long-remembered.