It has come to light that a horse racing announcer is having to be escorted to and from his perch atop the raceway due to having received death threats in relation to his job.
Michael Wrona is the man that has replaced legendary race caller Trevor Denman, who announced his pending retirement from Santa Anita Park late last year.
It is Wrona who is the target of the death threats, according to an article by the Los Angeles Times.
The LA Times piece states that the threats directed at Wrona were made by a fan of Denman’s via a horse racing blog. In turn, the racetrack contacted police, who touched base with the individual. Who was not arrested or detained. According to the article, the police do not believe that the individual is a threat to Wrona at this time.
The piece has cited Arcadia Police Lt. Roy Nakamura as saying that “Based on the information we’ve been able to gather, we are comfortable that he is not a threat at this time. He’s enamored with Trevor Denman and he’s upset with the fact that Trevor is no longer going to be announcing the races. He’s fixated on Trevor.”
The individual has been barred from the racetrack, and raceway security has been very close to Wrona since the whole situation began
When contacted, Denman said that the situation is “really, really strange.” He went on to say, “hopefully nothing will ever come of it. And hopefully it will never happen again. But it’s still a terrible thing to have hanging over your head.”
“It’s certainly unfortunate that I’ve been encumbered by this situation,” Wrona was quoted as saying. “It’s not been pleasant. At the same time the security people at Santa Anita have been first class in their handling of this.”
(With files from the Los Angeles Times)