Belmont Stakes Announcer Frank Mirahmadi Is The TDN Writers’ Room Guest

[Wandering Eyes]

In 10 days, Frank Mirahmadi will be in the announcers' booth to call the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, both on-track and for the national Fox broadcast. His best trick to combat the nerves? His imagination.

“Once the big Fox broadcast starts, there's no question the adrenaline goes to a new level,” said Mirahmadi, appearing as the Gainesway Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented by Keeneland. “The key with the big races–and I've learned this over many years, it's almost 30 years now that I'm calling races-is to trick yourself into pretending it's a starter allowance event. And with these horses, it should theoretically be easier because there's no worry about who they are. You know who they are as a racing fan. And so for me, I think the whole key is to just try to stay calm.”

Not that the Saratoga announcers' booth makes it easy.

“The reason it's so difficult is because of how low to the ground the booth is,” said Mirahmadi. “It's just it's almost impossible.  You're bobbing and weaving, you're low to the ground, which means there's more preparation necessary because you have to learn every nook and cranny. You know with announcers we start with the silks and then the equipment and then of course the horse, but in this case you've got to look at the sleeves and every little bit of the cap because when horses are across the course or across the track you can't see them. And so it's important to be able to have every little thing to identify them with.”

But the Belmont won't be the only reason Mirahmadi-whose permanent job is as the announcer at Santa Anita–is happy to come to New York. A vegetarian, he says he lives on a diet that includes pizza every day. “I'm actually one of the fattest vegetarians in North American history,” he said. “I don't eat meat. I don't eat chicken and I don't eat fish. I don't eat anything that's walked, talked or breathed. So I have very strange eating habits. You've heard of the no-carb diet? Well, you're looking at a man closer to 300 than 200 pounds and it's because the all-carb diet is not very healthy. But cheese pizza is my favorite food. And so, needless to say, in Los Angeles, we are challenged. But on the East Coast, it's a beautiful thing. The East Coast definitely has the far superior pizza. I do eat pizza every day. I don't recommend it for obvious reasons. And if you do, you might want to exercise a little bit.”

The hosts-T.D. Thornton, Bill Finley, and Randy Moss-also remembered trainer Christophe Clement, who passed away this week at the age of 59, and weighed in on the ongoing Preakness jockey debate, reignited this week by trainer Steve Asmussen. Randy Moss revealed the Fastest Horse of the Week in a segment sponsored by the WinStar stallion Nashville. The show, also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV, the KTA-KTOB, and West Point Thoroughbreds, recapped last week's racing, including Saffie Joseph's big weekend at Santa Anita.

To watch the video version of the podcast, click here.

For the audio podcast, click here.

The post Belmont Stakes Announcer Frank Mirahmadi Is The TDN Writers’ Room Guest appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article