Page 49 - December 2016

Los Alamitos announcer Ed Burgart and his wife Marsha.
for me – and maybe because it was 1981, the first Champion of Champions I ever called
– was the race between Denim N Diamonds and Sgt Pepper Feature,” he says. “ESPN was doing the race here and I was a little bit nervous because I was going to be live on TV for a
major race. R.D. Hubbard owned Denim N Diamonds and Tom Neff owned Sgt Pepper Feature. Kenny Clarisse was on Sgt Pepper Feature and Jerry Nicodemus was on Denim N Diamonds, and in my call I said, ‘It’s the mare at the wire!’ Hubbard and everybody thought that was just great. That’s the race that stands out the most. I don’t know if that’s my greatest call or not, but that one stands out.”
Sometimes it doesn’t work. Burgart remembers a call he wishes he could take back.
“The All American Futurity, 2012,” he declares, with no hesitation. “That’s the year that I called
the Grade 1 All American Futurity and Derby for TVG. I messed up the call in the Futurity – my headset slipped a little bit, I lost track of a few
of the horses coming out of the gate and I kind
of stumbled over. It took me awhile. There were pauses in the race. I had the right winner at the wire, but I had the wrong third horse, and it was just an ugly call. And it came on the heels of the All American Derby the day before, when Ochoa won, that I thought was one of my better calls.
“It was not smooth and I remember that call to this day,” he admits. “It’s funny how we remember the bad calls. Like the announcer at Aqueduct, who’s probably beating himself over the head for the Wood Memorial this year, where he picked
up the wrong horse at the head of the stretch and didn’t catch it until after the wire. We remember those things. It happens to all of us sometimes. You hate for it to happen on the big stage. It could happen on the third race tonight, which would be bad enough, but it wouldn’t be as bad.”
Keep Focus
Burgart notes that some announcers – without naming names – seem to think their jobs make them the stars at the track.
“It’s not about the announcer,” he says. “It’s about the horses and it’s about the people. I’m paid to do the job, to be as accurate as possible,
and to be entertaining without going overboard. You don’t want to overstep the line. Sure, there are times when you go overboard a little bit, but you try not to. Sometimes the bigger races bring out more of the adrenalin and you get a little more excited, but you always want to be careful so you don’t lose track of the call.
“I try not to overcall the cheap races, but you still want to call them with some enthusiasm,” he says. “You want to build up the bigger races because of the prestige and all that, but the little guy down there is someone you want to make happy, too. Everybody deserves you giving your best every time. It’s like a baseball player or football player, each time you want to try.”
Burgart’s enthusiasm still comes across in his calls.
“I do the morning line and all the comments for the program here at Los Alamitos, and
I watch the races quite a bit afterwards on video, so I know these horses going in and they become almost like family,” he says. “I think that helps keep my enthusiasm at a certain level because I’ve already geared myself up and gotten involved for each race before it’s even run.
“So as long as I enjoy what I’m doing, I’ll be right here,” Burgart vows. “I always want to be involved in horse racing in some aspect, but my feeling is I don’t want to step down after it’s too late. There have been some great announcers that have waited too long before they retired. You have to maintain your edge at all times up here. So as long as I feel comfortable that I’m not losing a step and still enjoy what I’m doing, I’m not going anywhere.”
Ed Burgart has had plenty of time to get comfortable, he’s still got his step and, despite the photographic memory, he still goes from one race to the next without losing that step.
“I pretty much put each race out of my mind once it’s over,” he says. “If you start thinking about the previous race, you have no clue about what’s going to go on in the next one. When
I walk out of the track at night and somebody asks, ‘well, who won the third race?’ I say I can’t remember who won the last race. I totally blank out afterward.” Burgart laughs.
“And at my age, it’s getting easier to erase it completely.”
Burgart recalls the 2012 Champion of Champions in which his first two calls were longshots - winner Rylees Boy and second-placed Flame N Flash. The two hit the wire a nose apart.
Known for his incredible recall, Ed Burgart still remembers the first Champion of Champions he ever announced in 1981 when the black mare Denim N Diamonds beat the sorrel gelding Sgt Pepper Feature.
One of Burgart’s most talked about race calls gave a nod to Motown’s Rick James when Burgart called Freaky an absolute “Superfreak” in the 2009 Robert L. Boniface Los Alamitos Invitational Championship-G1.
SPEEDHORSE, December 2016 47