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PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT How “wives” stretch call helped Howard County native and Mt. St. Joe grad land Triple Crown job and spot in history books He wanted to be a racetrack announcer so badly that he practiced on rooftops and in cafeterias as a teenager. Thirty years later, Larry Collmus became part of history. “My father installed the sound system at the Timonium Fairgrounds, so I started to watch racing on the monitors and listening to the various announcers and felt like it was something I wanted to try. I got to know everyone in the press box and got access to the rooftops to start practicing,” said Collmus, a 1984 graduate of Mt. St. Joe High School. “I used to call the races in the St. Joe cafeteria for fun. I would call them from the day before using information that was in the newspaper. The guys would listen and it was a lot of fun.” His persistence paid off and Collmus became the backup announcer to Dick Woolley at the four Maryland tracks (Pimlico, Laurel Park, Bowie and Timonium) in June 1985 at the age of 18. “I remember the winner of the first race I called,” Collmus added. “Tiara’s Flame, who was trained by the great King Leatherbury. That is where it all started.” After two years on the Maryland circuit, Collmus has spent the last 30 years traveling around the country with stops in Alabama, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida, Kentucky and New York where he is the now the track announcer at Belmont Park and Saratoga race tracks. But it was at Monmouth Park in August 2010 where his career took off because of this race involving horses named Mywifenosevrything and Thewifedoesntknow: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=BpSmprqptSk
Howard County native and Mt. St. Joe graduate Larry Collmus calls the Triple Crown races for NBC Sports. (Photo Credit: Maryland Jockey Club)
The call ended up as one of the Top Plays of the Day on ESPN, earned Collmus appearances on the CBS Morning Show and Inside Edition and has received over 700,000 views on YouTube. The following spring, the Howard County native was selected by NBC Sports to call the Triple Crown races on the network. In 2015, American Pharoah became the first horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in 37 years with Collmus having the honor of calling the historic event: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=WyDcXtVb8_U “That whole week I was on edge and nervous about the prospect. I had dinner with Tom
Hammond (NBC sportscaster) and he told me this is a moment in history and get it into your head what you want to say in case it happens. The three words that popped into my head were ‘finally the one.’ It is a mile and a half race and at the beginning I purposely toned down so not to be over the top. But at the top of the stretch I let loose and said the words I had prepared,” said Collmus, who was a parishioner at St. Paul in Ellicott City and attended the Trinity School from kindergarten through 8th grade. “I have watched the race a thousand times,” he explained. “Not to hear my call but just to be back in those two and a half minutes. It was the greatest day I have ever been part of and I feel so fortunate.”
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