Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
Trevor Denman starts his 30th season as the voice of Santa Anita Park horse racing
Listen
• 5:06
(
Susanne Whatley/KPCC
)
The 2012 Breeders' Cup gets underway Friday at Santa Anita Park, andTrevor Denman will be announcing the races like he’s done for the past three decades. The 60-year old has been compared to the likes of the Dodgers' Vin Scully, the Lakers’ late Chick Hearn and the Kings' Bob Miller.
Horse racing is in his blood
Denman started riding horses when he was 6 years old in his native South Africa.
"Racing in South Africa, particularly in the city I came from — which was pretty British-influenced — was just horse-racing crazy.”
Support for LAist comes from
Myth has it, said Denman, that when British colonists first landed on the peninsula, “the first thing the captain did when he landed on the new shore was look for a mile-and-a-half piece of ground — flat ground — and they set up a race track."
Why horse racing announcer?
As a kid, Denman wanted to be a jockey when he grew up.When he was 14 years old, he applied to a jockey academy, but didn’t get in ‚ because at 5-foot, 7-inches tall, he didn’t qualify to be one.
Denman said the admission process at jockey academies in South Africa is an arbitrary decision. “You go before some doctors and some trainers and they feel your bones and they look at your shoe size, and obviously weigh you.”
After being rejected from the academy, he figured he’d become a race horse announcer instead, "and I started calling races into a tape recorder at an apartment overlooking a race track.”
Denman called his first official race in South Africa when he was 18.
The evolution of horse racing over the years
Support for LAist comes from
When Denman started working in Santa Anita Park, the venue would easily get around 50,000 visitors on the weekends, 15,000 during the week. Now, it gets about 3,000 weekly visitors, about 10,000 on the weekends.
“We’re not a horse world anymore,” Denman said. The horse racing industry has changed drastically over the decades. “Back in the 1950s, the people who were born in the 1910s and 1920's... they lived with and perhaps owned horses as part of life. Horses were part of life.”
But that all changed in early 20th century when cars became the dominant means of transportation.
“Now, it’s pony rides, and that’s about it,” Denman said.
The Internet has also been a major blow to horse racing, he said. “Now you just sit at home, you have a beer, you put the horse races up on the screen, and you bet from home."
On the Breeders' Cup
Nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, “Santa Anita Park is probably one of the most majestic race tracks in the world,” Denman said. It’s the perfect venue for this two-day Breeders' Cup racing series, which includes a $5 million purse for the winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic race.
Support for LAist comes from
It’s one of the three biggest days in the horse racing world, in addition to the Kentucky Derby and the Dubai World Cup.
“We get horses coming in from England, Ireland, France, sometimes Japan and Australia,” said Denman. “It's very rare that you can get all the players in the world together at one race track in one afternoon.”
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
The union representing the restaurant's workers announced Tuesday that The Pantry will welcome back patrons Thursday after suddenly shutting down six months ago. -
If approved, the more than 62-acre project would include 50 housing lots and a marina less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow's famous nest overlooking the lake.
-
The U.S. Supreme Court lifted limits on immigration sweeps in Southern California, overturning a lower court ruling that prohibited agents from stopping people based on their appearance.
-
Censorship has long been controversial. But lately, the issue of who does and doesn’t have the right to restrict kids’ access to books has been heating up across the country in the so-called culture wars.
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity.
-
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
Best of LAist