Lies writing for Saratoga Special

John Lies is still fulfilling his childhood dream of being a horse racing announcer, but in between Lone Star Park meets the 1994 Fallbrook High School graduate is writing for the Saratoga Special.

“I wasn’t quite sure coming back to do publicity again,” he said. “But it’s just been great to meet all the new people here.”

During his Fallbrook High School years Lies participated on the “Morning News” closed-circuit television broadcasts at the school, although he did not provide sports news. He also sang and played piano while at Fallbrook High School. He was a communications major at Westmont College, and his sports debut behind a microphone occurred at Westmont, where he sang the National Anthem prior to the school’s basketball games. He graduated from Westmont in 1998 and made his professional horse racing industry debut that summer as the press box steward during the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club meet, and he followed that with a media and publicity position at Santa Anita Park, where he wrote the stable notes. He also worked as an assistant trainer for John Sadler and Vladimir Cerin, although his work as an assistant trainer convinced him that his future was with an announcing position.

Lies subsequently provided stretch calls and results for radio stations KNX and The Mighty 1090, and he appeared on morning talk shows in California and Las Vegas. He co-hosted a Kentucky Derby Day radio show in 2004 with Vic Stauffer, who is also the regular announcer at the Santa Rosa fair meet. Stauffer provided Lies with announcing experience at the 2004 fair meet, at which Lies called 15 races, and Stauffer also suggested Lies as a replacement caller at Ellis Park in Kentucky when Luke Kruytbosch came to Del Mar for the Pacific Classic weekend in 2004.

Lies called 30 meets at Ellis Park, and his 45 races in 2004 gave him material for a demo tape. He sent a tape to Darren Rogers, the director of communications at Lone Star Park, hoping for feedback. Rogers, who had previously worked at Santa Anita Park and Hollywood Park, provided positive feedback, and when Lone Star Park was unable to reach contract terms with announcer Michael Wrona for the 2005 meet, Rogers asked Lies to send additional tapes for evaluation. Lies was interviewed by Lone Star Park in February 2005 and was hired in March 2005. At the end of the 67-day meet in 2005, Lies was offered the chance to return to Lone Star Park for the 2006 meet.

Lone Star Park is in Grand Prairie, Texas, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Magna Entertainment Corporation owns both Lone Star Park and Remington Park in Oklahoma City, and in 2005 Magna sought to promote the two tracks as sister tracks. Lies called the 66-day meet at Remington Park which lasted between August 5 and November 27 in 2005.

This year Lies will call the quarter horse races at the Lone Star Park Fall meet instead of serving as the caller at Remington Park. “It just made more sense with everybody involved for me to be at Lone Star full-time,” he said.

This year’s Lone Star Park thoroughbred meet closed on July 23, and the track’s 32-day quarter horse meet runs from October 6 through December 2. The Saratoga meet opened on July 26 and runs through September 4. “The time was available for me,” Lies said.

During the Spring meet at Lone Star Park, stable notes writer Jim Mulvihill became acquainted with Lies. Mulvihill had written for the Saratoga Special in the past and knew about an opening for a writer. Through Mulvihill’s connections Lies spoke with Sean Clancy, who publishes the Saratoga Special along with his brother Joe, and Lies secured the writing position.

Lies’ duties include news, interviews with jockeys, backstretch stories, and other items. “I’m just basically writing all kinds of different stories,” he said.

Sean Clancy was the champion steeplechase jockey in 1998. The Saratoga Special is in its sixth year and is well-known at the Saratoga track. “Everybody reads the Special,” Lies said. “It’s working out really well.”

Lies flew to New York on July 25, the day before the first day of the Saratoga meet. Saratoga is approximately 30 minutes north of Albany, New York. On August 2, Lies and everybody else involved with the track experienced the cancellation of the day’s scheduled races due to the extreme heat. The heat index reached 110 degrees that day at Saratoga, and early in the morning there was a meeting with the New York Racing Association. “They just reached a unanimous decision,” Lies said. “We’ve got five more weeks coming up here. We can make up the races easily.”

The track resumed racing the following day. “The last couple of days since then it’s cooled off quite a bit,” Lies said.

Lies began elementary school in Vista before his family moved to Fallbrook. The heat at Saratoga resembled his experiences in Texas more than his Southern California background. “As far as the heat is concerned, that was sort of a good training ground for it,” Lies said of his two meets in Texas.

Normally Saratoga isn’t as hot as Lone Star Park. “Here it’s a lot more humid, but it’s not quite as hot,” Lies said.

Lies called the weather in Oklahoma unpredictable, noting that he experienced heat and thunderstorms among other weather.

“Out here I’m actually enjoying the weather quite a lot,” he said of Saratoga. “I think the weather is just fine.”

Lies will leave Albany on September 5 and will fly to San Diego, allowing him to attend Closing Day at Del Mar on September 6.

“It’s just been a great experience to meet all these new people,” he said.

“These are experiences that are going to help me once again down the road,” Lies said. “I feel very lucky.”