Larry Lederman, a track announcer for both harness and Thoroughbred racing, died on Tuesday at his home in East Windsor, N.J., at the age of 67, according to friends. Lederman was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011, and his death was related to the cancer.
Lederman, a colorful character who strived to make his race calls entertaining, got his first full-time job as an announcer at Atlantic City Racecourse in 1987. He later worked as a race caller at Freehold Raceway, Garden State Park, and The Meadowlands, and, in 1993, he had an off-camera role in the movie "A Bronx Tale” by calling a fictional race in the style of longtime New York race announcer Fred Capossela.
Lederman retired in 2020, but still made guest appearances at some tracks. He got his first job in racing in 1977 at the Daily Racing Form, where he worked as a chart caller until 1990.
Lederman was frequently creative with his race calls. In one race, featuring a horse named Dominatrix, he said the horse was “under the whip and loved every minute of it.” In a race featuring a horse named Burnt Toast, he celebrated the horse’s win by saying, “Scrape off the crumbs and spread on the butter, because Burnt Toast is home.”
Asked in an interview with Daily Racing Form in 2021 if his stylings came naturally during the running of a race, Lederman said “sometimes [things] would just pop into my head during the race.”
“It is supposed to be an entertainment thing, not that I call for laughs, because I’m not,” Lederman said. “The main thing is to call the race right and be as accurate as you can.”
In 2011, Lederman was given the Good Guy Award from the U.S. Harness Writers Association.
Lederman’s wife, Jodi, died in 2014. A daughter, Leslie, died in 2017. He is survived by a brother, Alan; a son, Scott; and a grandson.
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