Every race fan has a favorite phrase made popular by track announcer Trevor Denman, who announced his retirement on Thursday from calling the action at the Del Mar summer meetings.
If your pick was “moving like a winner,” rest assured there would be a payoff.
Opening day at Del Mar each July had a common phrase to describe the start of the first race: “There’s the roar from the crowd.”
There always was a hearty cheer from an enthusiastic crowd.
And perhaps the finest race description of them all occurred on a Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita in 2009, when the famous mare Zenyatta roared from last to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in front of her hometown crowd.
:: Santa Anita Clocker Reports are available every race day. Access now.
Denman later told Daily Racing Form that Zenyatta’s win was his favorite race. From the turn, Denman was eyeing Zenyatta at the back of the field, and he gave an epic description of her closing rally:
“Here’s Zenyatta, and let’s see, Zenyatta has a lot, a lot of ground to make up. Zenyatta, if she wins this, she will be a super horse. She starting to pick them off, though.
"Zenyatta, gonna hook to the outside. Meanwhile, it’s Colonel John, Summer Bird in the red cap, and Zenyatta has come to the outside! Zenyatta flying on the grandstand side. Gio Ponti on the inside. Summer Bird is right there.
"This is un-be-lieve-able! Zenyatta! What a performance, one we’ll never forget. Looked impossible, but it is Zenyatta, still unbeaten.”
Sometimes, racegoers heard descriptions they did not want to hear – notably, if a runner was fading from contention. One random recollection: In the fall of 1989 at Santa Anita, the former multiple Grade 1 winner Mi Preferido was fading from the front in an allowance race when Denman gave a harsh assessment of the colt’s chances, saying, “Mi Preferido just throws in the towel.”
Alas, Mi Preferido finished fourth.
If a horse was clear in the stretch, Denman sometimes put an exclamation point on the performance, stating that the trailing field “would need to sprout wings” to have any chance.
Denman’s retirement was announced in a statement by Del Mar. A native of South Africa, Denman had scaled back his workload considerably in the last decade. He retired from calling races at Santa Anita in 2015 and called his last Del Mar autumn meeting in 2019.
Denman, 72, did not work the 2020 Del Mar summer or fall meetings at the height of the pandemic, and he missed the 2021 fall meeting after sustaining a fall at his year-round residence on a farm in Minnesota.
Larry Collmus, who has worked in place of Denman at Del Mar in recent years in the fall, will be the full-time announcer, the track said in Thursday’s statement. Collmus, 58, is currently working as a commentator on FanDuel TV. He has called the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup races for NBC in recent years.
Denman had more than a decade of experience in South Africa when he moved to California in 1983, initially working the fall Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita. He became Santa Anita’s full-time announcer for the 1984-1985 winter-spring meeting and started at Del Mar in 1984.
Over time, Denman became one of the most popular announcers in the world for his style of describing the position of the runners and in-race commentary. In recent decades, scores of younger announcers adopted their own versions of Denman’s style. Gone was a static rundown of where runners were positioned as a race unfolded, replaced by a more descriptive commentary.
In the 1990s, Denman was at his most active. He called races at all three major Southern California tracks, including Hollywood Park, and at the Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Fairplex Park in Pomona. He worked briefly in the Bay Area and on the East Coast early in his career.
In a statement, Denman said his retirement was “one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, but my soul is telling me that now is the right time.”
Denman was honored with the 2023 Laffit Pincay Jr. Award at Del Mar for career achievement. The award is presented annually to people or organizations who have served racing with integrity, dedication, and distinction.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.