“This is the most important race of the year.
“The absolute toughest part of this job is controlling your nerves,” he says. From there, it’s water and light meals all the way through until post time. So he takes an Ambien to quiet the horses running through his mind, and on the morning of race day, he’ll have a couple cups of coffee to clear out the cobwebs. He’s on display every bit as the horses and riders, after all. With less than 24 hours before the race, Collmus begins to prepare himself. As soon as Ethereal Road scratched, I threw his flash card in the trash.” “He was eligible for the race, so I had him on my flash cards. “I had been studying him too,” Collmus says. That caused a tiny ripple in the betting markets, but none at all for Collmus. The day before the Derby, a wrinkle: Ethereal Road scratched out of the Derby, opening the door for Rich Strike to enter. This, as it would turn out, proved to be a particularly crucial bit of preparation in 2022. He prints them all out to create a set of flash cards he’ll use the week leading up to the Derby, until he can tell by sight which horse’s jockey is wearing which color.
DRONE VIDEO OF KENTUCKY DERBY PDF
When these horses come onto the track, you want to know them like they’re your best friends.”Ībout 10 days before the race, Churchill Downs will send Collmus a PDF of all the jockey silks - the distinctive colors and patterns - for each horse. Preparation involves “knowing the running styles, the front runners, the horses coming from behind, the post positions. Do they start fast? Are they strong closers? Every data point might be crucial on the first Saturday in May. He watches Derby prep races to get a sense of the horses that might be running in the race, looking for clues as to their style and race approach. “I don’t know that I would rank it ahead of American Pharaoh and Justify going for the Triple Crown, but the Kentucky Derby is always such a huge deal.”Īlthough he calls thousands of races a year, Collmus begins his preparation for the Kentucky Derby weeks ahead of time. “I would say that was definitely one of my top 10, because of the excitement level at the end of the race,” Collmus said Monday. Saturday demonstrated exactly why Collmus has the most high-profile job in horse racing: years of experience, weeks of preparation, hours of steadiness, minutes of focus, and seconds of improvisational euphoria all led to a call that will be replayed as long as the Derby runs. #KyDerby /NPsYvPauVcĬalling horse races is an art form, which is why NBC pitches to Collmus and doesn’t rely on one of its regular play-by-play announcers to parachute in and make the call. Rich Strike (80-1) comes down the stretch to score one of the biggest upset wins in history.
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