Episode 584: Michael Wrona - Queensland race caller who dared to dream in 1990 still going strong in USA racing

Darby RacingHorse RacingHorse Racing PodcastJohn TappPanthers PenrithRacing NSWSky Racing

Jun 16

Hot off the press! Here’s Michael only last week setting up his binoculars in preparation for a guest calling stint at Kentucky Downs USA. There’s no broadcast box - just an open verandah.

I get regular enquiries about the current whereabouts and activities of Michael Wrona, the young Queensland race caller I got to introduce to American horse racing thirty six years ago. The now defunct Hollywood Park Race Club was anxious to try out the Australian style of race calling on the big on course crowds and simulcast viewers of the era. Michael and I were invited to cover a total of six race meetings in a ten day period during which time public reaction was to be closely monitored. Should the experiment prove successful, Michael was all but assured of an offer to become resident Hollywood Park broadcaster.

Two weeks later 24 year old Michael Wrona had made the quantum leap from a fair way down the “pecking order” on 4BC Brisbane to become the voice of Californian racing on one of the world’s most iconic racetracks. The past 36 years have taken the Brisbane boy through many valleys and peaks - amazing highlights and devastating lows. He’s been tempted to call it quits and scurry home to Australia several times, but something has always prompted him to give it another shot. Today he and his American wife Kathy live in Orange County where he’s safely ensconced as track announcer at the Los Alamitos race track. Five years ago we presented a podcast with the man himself. Several recent emails have prompted me to give that podcast another run.

Michael was actually in the broadcast box at Los Alamitos getting ready to call a Saturday night card when we recorded this 2021 chat. We began by talking about his Aussie accent, unchanged after more than three decades in the US.

He talks of his appointment as Los Alamitos track announcer in the wake of his shock dismissal by the owners of the high profile Santa Anita track.

Michael takes us through the dual breed format of Los Alamitos programming - the combination of thoroughbred and quarter horse racing.

We turn back the clock to the day Michael and I arrived at Hollywood Park for a six meeting commitment. If the crowds and simulcast viewers liked the Queenslander’s style, he had the job at the famous track.

Michael remembers the late Marjorie Everett, the dynamic chairperson of the Hollywood Park Operating Company and some of her eccentricities.

He reflects on the first big race he got to call in California featuring the clash of two top horses.

Michael was stunned when offered the opportunity to share calling duties at the reopening of the legendary Agua Caliente track where Phar Lap had won his only race outside Australia.

He looks back on the first of several interruptions to his career. Marjorie Everett was deposed as Hollywood Park supremo, and the new administration preferred another caller. He was lucky to pick up a gig at Bay Meadows track in San Francisco.

The Aussie commentator talks of a brief return to Hollywood Park and the opportunity to feature in an episode of the famous Seinfeld sitcom.

Mike talks of his subsequent dismissal from the Bay Meadows job. Luckily, he still had employment with Golden Gate Fields, another popular San Francisco venue.

He looks back on an offer from an exciting new venture in Texas. Retama Park opened with a flurry but closed before the completion of its first season. By now Michael was developing an inferiority complex.

Around this time Michael got to enjoy a brief stint at the famous Arlington Park track in Chicago. During this stint he called a history making performance by the champion Cigar.

Life took a bizarre twist for Michael when he was reappointed by Hollywood Park after a shock resignation by Trevor Denman. He called the race in which Lafitt Pincay Jnr broke Willie Shoemaker’s long standing riding record.

The much travelled Wrona talks of an exciting offer from another Texan enterprise called Lone Star Park where he would spend five years. For three years during Lone Star’s off season he worked at Fairgrounds in New Orleans. Both tracks were taken over by new management and history repeated itself when Michael was finished up.

Michael talks of his separation from first wife Julie whose acting career kept them apart for long periods. His spirits were lifted by the opportunity to call the 2000 Preakness Stakes.

In 2005 he returned to California where he called the races for Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields. He talks of a quick trip to Argentina to cover South America’s biggest race.

Michael looks back on 2015, a helluva year for the expat Queenslander. He landed the job at Santa Anita after an exhaustive audition process, but shortly after had to deal with the trauma of being singled out by a “real live” stalker.

By now he’d become very philosophical about the lack of job security in the US. His dismissal at Santa Anita came from left field.

On a lighter note Michael talks about his marriage to the delightful Kathy and the interpretation of certain expressions he’s used in his race calls. Some of them caused a little confusion in the States.

He talks of a whirlwind schedule through 2019 which gave him little time to think of the Santa Anita disaster.

This was a lovely catch up with the kid from Brisbane who over 36 years has showcased the Aussie style of race calling on more than twenty tracks in six countries.

Michael on a crisp California day visits former Aussie dual Gr. 1 winner Accomplice at a Sacramento farm. Accomplice had won The Galaxy and Doomben $10000 of 1997.

Another Aussie expat Bint Mascay received a visit from Michael at Old Friends Farm in Kentucky. Bint Mascay had famously won the 1993 Golden Slipper.

The Aussie caller with another high profile expat Strawberry Road soon after the stallion retired to stud. Strawberry Road had won four Gr. 1s in Australia and one in Germany.