The voice of Roosevelt Raceway has been silenced. Word comes that Jack E. Lee, the track announcer at Roosevelt Raceway passed away on July 30. Mr. Lee's voice will forever be connected to races such as the American Trotting Championship, Roosevelt International and the Challenge Cup. Along with Bob 'the Bullet' Meyers, the voice of Yonkers Raceway during the 1970s and early 1980s, their race calls were heard around the country on the Racing from Yonkers/Roosevelt telecasts. I can still hear in my head Jack's calls of some of the greatest races at Roosevelt.
While there are many great track announcers out there, for me they are all measured against Jack E Lee. Hopefully Jack is calling the races in heaven.
For those of you that never had the pleasure of hearing any of Jack's race calls, here are a couple of races to review. Enjoy.
7 comments:
As good as Jack Lee was, Bob Meyer was his antithesis-he made EVERY racecall at Yonkers exactly the same, including the International when it was raced at Yonkers - it sounded just as if he was calling a 4 claimer.
I had not remembered Peter Haughton winning an International, and his post-race victory "exit" from the bike in the first turn, when pulling up, certainly was unplanned !
No doubt, 'The Bullet' was much different than Jack E. Lee and yes I preferred Jack's calls; there was a reason Bob Meyers was known as the bullet. That being said, they both were part of an era, where harness racing was being exposed throughout the nation when all the cable channels showed channel 9.
I was "blessed" to have know both of these gentlemen very well.
Jack E. lee was one of the best race announcers in the history of harness racing.
The "bullet" was a good man and an average race caller. On his best day he would never be as good as Mr. Lee.
I think some of Jack Lee's best calls were made at Suffolk Meadows(formerly Parr Meadows), a quarter horse track on Eastern Long Island. He called the races there in 1986 during Suffolk Meadows' only meet and was certainly not your typical quarter horse race announcer. I'll never forget the way he would run down an entire field in a 440 yard race before the mid-point and then give his trademark, "can see 'em all!" as a field left the chute and entered the oval. During that meet he proved he wasn't just a harness announcer and could call the flats with speed and accuracy, and also be funny as hell on occasion.
Suffolk Meadows could be a comedy of errors. My best memory was the time late scratches brought a field down to five and under NY law triple wagers would have to refunded. But the race went off and then there was a long delay before it was announced that all triples were refunds. You had everyone on the apron picking up tickets. Jack Lee leaned out the window of his booth and said, "And the stoopers are haaavvvin' a field day."
If anyone can unearth any video from Suffolk Meadows and post them on YouTube that would be awesome. RIP, Jack E. Lee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdUrH4RYFRc
Jack E. Lee the only man that called the driver's name instead of the horses during a race.
"Its Jackie Mo closing...Its the Lukster in front, and its pacin Parker to win it all"
I grew up on Jack E. Lee @ R.R. and Bob Meyers @ Y.R. While I can still hear The Bullet's "Head and Head Nose To Nose For The Lead" mantra at three quarters, there was and is still no one in the class of the Great Jack Lee. Jack Lee stands alone and is the measuring stick for all Harness Race Callers.
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