Last Saturday night, Frank Salive, who was the guest announcer at Kawartha Downs, experienced every race caller’s nightmare: no sound.

Just as the seventh race was about to start, Salive’s microphone died. Luckily, Kawartha’s backstretch supervisor, Jim Huck, was on his game.

“Frank looked down at me and threw up his hands, like ‘what can I do?’ So I jumped up on a picnic table with the portable mic and called the race,” explained Huck, who usually has a microphone on hand during race nights to make announcements, interview horse people, etc.

“It was frustrating to only get white noise when trying to go on! All the credit goes to Jim for improvising in the situation,” said Salive, who will be back at the Fraserville oval on July 23.

This Saturday’s card, with regular announcer Evan Loucks back in the announcer’s booth, goes postward at 7 p.m.

(Kawartha Downs)