April 25, 2013
Racegoers at Wondai today may have been puzzled by the name of Race 3 … the “Paul Dolan Anniversary Call Maiden Handicap”.
Paul Dolan is a well-known racecaller at gallops and the dogs, and yes, it is his anniversary.
It’s been 40 years since he called his first full card of races. At Wondai. At the Anzac Day race meeting.
His career took off and the rest is now history. He’s one of regional Queensland’s best known callers.
And it’s all thanks to Nanango’s Cr Barry Green, then a radio announcer at 4SB, and his wedding plans …
Read all about it in this report by senior local journalist Keith Kratzmann:
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By Keith Kratzmann
Paul Dolan is celebrating 40 years of race-calling at Wondai’s Anzac Day races.
His first five-event broadcast was at the Wondai Diggers Meeting in April 1973.
During these 40 years, Paul has developed into an accurate and colourful caller who is heard on most tracks in southern Queensland.
Away from broadcasting, Paul is nature’s gentleman and has been a credit in public relations to the racing and greyhound industries.
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Little did racecaller Paul Dolan know that some 40 years ago, when he was nurtured into the industry by Nanango icon Barry Green, that his voice would be heard for four decades throughout Australia covering thoroughbred and greyhound meetings.
On Anzac Day of this year Paul Dolan will have been calling races for 40 years, his first meeting being on the Wondai sand track in 1973 when regular caller Barry Green had a wedding date with his bride, the former Mary Baker.
Born in Brisbane in 1953, Paul was educated at convents and colleges at Sandgate and Scarborough.
His mother attended the races most Saturdays and took him at the age of 12 to Albion Park, Doomben and later Eagle Farm.
“I was enthralled by the whole scene but particularly by the activities of the race-callers,” he said.
“At Doomben, they were at the back of the public grandstand and I would watch the top announcers such as Vince Curry, Keith Noud and Larry Pratt in full cry.
“By age 19 I had been practicing my calls and decided to write to various country clubs to seek permission to meet their announcer.
“Miriam Gittins, then secretary of Kilcoy, invited me there to meet their caller Barry Green, a Kingaroy-based radio announcer who covered the whole circuit on Saturdays from Kilcoy to Gayndah.
“Barry was seeking an assistant and took me on board.
“I did an audition tape at Nanango in early March 1973 and he was impressed enough to say ‘come to Gayndah’ and call a race in which he would have a runner as an owner.
“That race (on March 31) was just a field of three and produced a very close finish. I was too nervous to try to predict the winner. I can still picture the finish as if it was yesterday. The winner was Jamaica Princess in blue colours ridden by Graham “Tiny” Spencer.
“The late and great jockey Ken Russell, then an apprentice who lived in Monto, rode the second placegetter, Kandy Prince.
“Barry owned Lord Muesta, who finished the closest of thirds down the outside rail.”
Barry Green had set a wedding date on the Anzac Day weekend in 1973 to marry Mary and assigned Paul to call his first entire card at Wondai.
“He got dropped into it from a great height,” Barry admitted.
“But he’s now the best greyhound caller in Australia.”
Paul is held in high respect in the greyhound industry where he regularly calls at south-east Queensland meetings each week, plus his selections are pretty much spot-on while he has been a regular columnist for the monthly Queensland Greyhound newspaper.
Paul was also a part of the ABC’s radio racing coverage from 1980 until the service was terminated in June 1998.
His roles there included calling races from Brisbane’s Eagle Farm and Doomben tracks, presenting the morning preview with Geoff Mahoney, Greg Miles and John O’Neil and hosting the afternoon racing and sporting service which was heard throughout Queensland and NSW.
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Paul rates Kingston Town as the greatest racehorse he has ever seen, even allowing for Black Caviar.
“Kingston Town won from 1200 to 3200 metres, Black Caviar has won from 1000 to 1400 metres,” Paul said.
“Kingston Town was so versatile it was amazing.
“I’d put Makybe Diva as my second-best, winning three consecutive Melbourne Cups and a Cox Plate.
“This is not to knock Black Caviar as she is a sensation, but I’ve got her in as third best I’ve seen.
“The best horse I’ve called was Daybreak Lover, winning a 2yo race at Doomben. He went on to win the Stradbroke, Queensland’s premier sprint, on two occasions.
“The best country horse I saw was Picnic In The Park. I called his maiden win at Esk, then his 10th Division at Nanango and a few other wins around the circuit, including Wondai. And I called the Gold Coast meeting at which he won two races on the one day.
“I labelled the horse as the ‘Mercedes From Murgon’ in one of those calls. Malcolm Raabe trained the horse near Murgon. I think it’s a great shame that the horse did not race in the city on a Saturday. I reckon he would have won, but of course we will never know.”
Picnic In The Park won 21 races in a row during 1984-85.
Paul has called greyhounds since August 1973. He says the Sydney dog, Rapid Journey, was the best he had seen and called.
“And I rate the best Queensland-trained greyhound I have called as Hopeful Doll, a great sprinter and stayer of the late 1980s trained by Mike O’Byrne who was Brisbane-based at the time and now lives in Murgon.
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He regards calling races as not only an occupation but a privilege.
“I say privilege because people invite you into their homes, into their lives, for a few minutes or an entire afternoon or night.
“They want to be informed and – to some extent – be entertained. Each call is a challenge, to try and paint a picture, not so much for those watching on Sky-TV, but to those listening on radio. They can’t see what is happening, we have to paint a picture for them.
“I’ve always admired the dedication of so many volunteer workers at the various country tracks. They are a credit to the industry, to their towns and to themselves. Racing couldn’t survive without them.”
NB. Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney presented Paul with a commemorative plaque on behalf of the South Burnett Race Club during a pause in today’s racing.
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