SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Celebrated track announcer Tom Durkin was part of the soundtrack of many of horse racing’s most famous races, serving as the voice of The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) from 1990-2014.

Durkin could be funny, as witnessed at Saratoga Race Course when he channeled Jack Sparrow to call home Arrrrr in proper pirate fashion to a claiming win on August 16, 2008, or by singing Doremifasollatido to victory in a maiden tilt on July 4, 2008, at Belmont Park.

However, he was also poignant and very much in the thick of the sport’s best moments, having called all three Triple Crown races as the NBC announcer from 2001-10 as well as working as the Breeders’ Cup on-air announcer from 1984-2005.

Durkin’s call of the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Classic came just weeks after the 9/11 tragedy amidst the first major sporting event to be held in New York City following the attacks. Sakhee, who had won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a few weeks earlier, had taken the lead but Tiznow, the reigning Horse of the Year, surged in the final yards as Durkin exclaimed, ‘Tiznow wins it for America!’

Durkin recently published his memoir titled “A Life’s Calling: The Voice Behind the World’s Greatest Horse Races,” in collaboration with turf writers Paul Volponi and Lenny Shulman.

“I never wanted to do it,” Durkin said. “I play golf with Rich Cristiano of Adelphi Racing and after we’d go and have a beer and I’d end up telling stories. After every story, he’d say, ‘You have to write a book.’

“The thing is, I’m afraid of introspection…of what I might actually find,” he continued. “But out of the blue, Volponi and Shulman reached out and we went ahead and did it.”

The book covers a lot of ground on Durkin’s life and how he dealt with the day-to-day stress of a high-profile position at the top of the sport.

“It’s a mixture of interviews with me and then with other people in my life – family, friends, racetrack people. And a lot of fun facts along the way,” Durkin said. “I just enjoy telling the stories of what happened over the 43 years I called races from tiny little places to the Kentucky Derby.”

During Durkin’s tenure a total of eight horses went to the gate for the Belmont Stakes with a Triple Crown at stake [Silver Charm, 1997; Real Quiet, 1998; Charismatic, 1999; War Emblem, 2002; Funny Cide, 2003; Smarty Jones, 2004; Big Brown, 2008; and California Chrome, 2014], while a ninth, I’ll Have Another in 2012, was scratched on the eve of the race with tendonitis.

American Pharoah would end the 37-year Triple Crown drought in 2015 just one year after Durkin’s retirement with Larry Collmus doing the honors from the announcer’s booth.

“I called a lot of Belmont Stakes – I guess they’re like your kids and it’s hard to have a favorite,” stated Durkin. “I was particularly disappointed when Smarty Jones lost. I was a big Smarty Jones fan. Being an announcer you’re supposed to be impartial but it’s hard to get away from being a fan and there was certainly a disappointment in my voice when Smarty Jones lost to Birdstone. One of the New York Times writers said it was the most non-celebratory win call he’d ever heard.”

Dan Loiselle, ‘The Voice of Canadian Horse Racing,’ called more than 55,000 races during a 29-year tenure at Woodbine Racetrack. He credits Durkin as a positive influence on his career in the booth.

“We became good friends over the years,” Loiselle said. “Tom had a binder he updated regularly with phrases he could use during a race call. He got me doing it and when I called races, my binder was divided into four different sections – start, body of the race, the stretch and the finish.

“I’d update it regularly with things I’d heard on a sportscast or read in the newspaper,” Loiselle continued. “When I felt myself getting stale over 160 days of racing in a year, I’d take a glance at this binder to find something I could use in the race if it presents itself.”

Loiselle went to his Durkin-inspired binder to find the line he used to call Wando home a winner of the 2003 Queen’s Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown: ‘It is all Wando! Sharp, strong, and a dominating winner of the Queen’s Plate. Wando, simply spectacular!’

“I read a story by Steve Simmons once talking about the Leafs and he said they were, ‘sharp, strong and dominant.’ So, I wrote it down and put it in my book,” recalled Loiselle. “When Wando was winning the Queen’s Plate, I’d written it down the week before and I used it when he came to the wire. That was something Tom got me doing.”

Durkin’s binder was as much to do with his professionalism as it was to do with dealing with his own anxiety.

“There’s a recurring theme in the book: fear of failure – which I believe is a great motivator and plain old nerves,” Durkin said. “I battled nerves in those big races for a long time. To the point where I actually gave up the job calling the Triple Crown because I didn’t want to deal with the stress anymore, but you have to put your health and well-being first.

“I learned how to deal with it through various means: psychologists, hypnotists, meditation and a betablocker which prevents you from hyperventilating and your hands from shaking – both of which are necessary when you call a horse race,” he continued. “You need steady hands and to be able to breathe well.”

In his semi-retirement, Durkin now teaches public speaking to high-school students in Saratoga Springs

“Preparation is the main thing,” Durkin said. “Sixty percent of people in America have a fear of public speaking. It’s the number one phobia. But the number one antidote to that is preparation. So, to call races, I prepared, prepared and prepared. Part of the book is the process on how I did it.”

Which brings Durkin back to the first book he ever wrote – one he didn’t publish but instead borrowed from day after day to inject color, excitement and clarity to an estimated 80,000 races called over a 43-year career in the booth.

“I kept putting new entries in there. I had 80 different words for the word fast,” Durkin said. “I thought fast was a dull word, so I’d use otherworldly, rocketing, bruising, brutal, savage, brisk, lively, unadulterated speed, there’s all sorts of them.

“The last race I called I used the word ‘splash-tastic’ – it’s not a word even, it’s a neologism,” Durkin continued. “That was in my section on things to say in the mud. On a muddy track day, I’d go to that section and refresh my subconscious. A couple weeks prior to that I used the word ‘mud-nificent.’

Loiselle, who was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2015, said Durkin fit the parameters of what it takes to be an elite performer.

“I was told early on that you have to be an original. You grab bits and pieces when you’re learning your craft but it’s essential that you develop a style of your own,” Loiselle said. “It isn’t cover bands that get famous, it’s the originals. I’m biased because he’s a friend of mine, but Tom was the gold standard.”

Durkin, succinct as ever, said he had a very specific goal as an announcer: “To describe each race accurately and appropriately.

“So, I’m not going to make the third at Aqueduct on February 4th sound like the Belmont Stakes and vice versa,” he added. “I’m not saying these races are not exciting, people are betting and they’re all exciting in their own way but there are different levels of importance. That’s not to say I was always serious because horse racing is fun and if a call required a little fun then I’d throw it in there. If you don’t sound interesting, people won’t be interested, and they will tune you out.”

And when it comes to knowing how to make a race call interesting, Durkin wrote the book.