Presenting Canada's Best Race Call

Fans of Canadian harness racing have had their say to determine Canada's Best Race Call.

From races available online as of March 1, 2019, Standardbred Canada compiled a list of 48 exciting races from across the country, representing the most recognizable announcers in the nation. A new set of races was posted each morning, with fans able to vote for a 24-hour period.

Canada's Best Race Call, as voted by the fans of Canadian harness racing, comes from Summerside, P.E.I.'s Vance Cameron with his much-heralded call in the 2008 Gold Cup & Saucer at Charlottetown Driving Park.

Cameron's call of the 2008 Gold Cup & Saucer was voted the best call over his call of the 2003 Gold Cup & Saucer. The 2008 Gold Cup & Saucer received 67.5 per cent of the votes in the finals.

The long-time announcer was humbled by the amount of support his race calls received in the contest, especially that of the emotional call in the 2008 edition of the race that was postponed a day due to inclement weather the day prior.

Country Estate (Paul MacKenzie) and Mach It Paid (J.R. Plante) traded places on the lead early in that 2008 event, with Plante and Mach It Paid leading the field through a :27.1 opening panel and a :56.1 half. Carl Jamieson had Banner Yankee out and on the move at the half-mile station to challenge the pacesetter.

As the field bunched up down the backstretch for the second and final time, Smith took Pownal Bay Matt three-wide around the final bend and with the pacers stacked up three-deep and grouped tightly together Cameron famously declared this race "the greatest Gold Cup & Saucer of all time!"

"When I gave it that call after the three-quarters that it was the greatest Gold Cup & Saucer of all time, at that point in the race you had three tiers of three wide horses and only three or four lengths separating nine of them with just over an eighth of a mile to go," Cameron recalled to Trot Insider.

With a :28.2 closer, 19-1 longshot Pownal Bay Matt had the late kick needed to hit the wire first in a dramatic stretch duel, tripping the timer in 1:53.4. Marymatt Hanover (Robert Shepherd), another rank outsider on the toteboard, rode the winner's cover into a second place finish nosing out Banner Yankee.

"I think what happened to me, at that time, I got a little wrapped up in the race myself because here comes Earl Smith, who has probably won 3,000 of his 3,500 races on the Island, a very accomplished horseman who had never tasted the winner's circle in the Gold Cup & Saucer and grew up watching it. And everybody down here that's involved in the game wants to win it. His horse was the farthest out and looked like he was going to be the winner just about the time I used that phrase I did."

Cameron wouldn't pick a favourite Gold Cup & Saucer, or even a favourite race call of his own. He did, however, select a call of those that made the semi-finals as the one he felt was his strongest.

"Every Gold Cup & Saucer is special, every Atlantic Breeders Crown is special, there's been so many...to tell you the truth, out of the four races that I had in the competition, I thought the 2011 Governors Plate was my best of the four.

"There's a lot of special calls. I can even go back to 1978 when my sister won a pari-mutuel race and she was the first Island-born female to win a pari-mutuel race...that's one of my all-time favourites, just because it hit home."

Of the 48 races selected by SC that comprised the March Madness-style tournament, Cameron revealed the race he thought would emerge victorious..and it was not one of his own.

"Let's bring Frank [Salive] into the conversation because his 2008 Molson call of Gregg McNair's horse, for me, I said 'that one there is going to win it all,'" admitted Cameron. "It kind of just shows you what kind of following you really do have."

That following has truly hit home this past month, with many fans of racing contacting Cameron on his days back at Dresden Raceway and Western Fair Raceway, recalling wins of Staff Director and many Ontario Sires Stakes events over years. Decades later, Cameron's enthusiasm for his profession and the harness racing hasn't waned.

"Forty-two years later, I still like going to the racetrack each night."