Racing: Calling more than a job

People used to think George Simon needed serious medical attention when he was a 17-year-old kid attending race meetings at Te Rapa racecourse, Hamilton.

In fact, he felt like a punting nerd.

Simon would arrive at Te Rapa armed with binoculars and a tape recorder and sneak to the top of the grandstand to perform his passion in life.

Simon would record his racing commentary and then go home and listen to himself.

Then one day resident race caller Keith Haub spotted a youthful Simon and asked him what he was doing.

After a 24-year apprenticeship, Simon achieves a lifetime goal when calling his first $500,000 New Zealand Derby today at Ellerslie.

Haub is a great mentor to Simon and a life-long friend to the popular Waikato racing identity.

"Earlier in life I wanted to be a jockey but when I reached the age of 10 and found myself playing in the front row for the local Ngaruawahia age group rugby team, I knew that dream was over," said Simon.

"Race calling was the next career goal for me and I thought: 'Bugger it, the only way I'll get there is to go to the races and have a go.'

"One day at Te Rapa, Haubie [Keith Haub] spotted me on the roof with my tape recorder and binoculars and told me to come along to the trials with him and he'd teach me to be a race caller.

"I was at the trials as often as I could get there to listen and learn off Haubie and it was the start in my career that I really appreciated.

"I was doing a bit of calling at the trials then I was allowed to call a few on-course only meetings at tracks like Taupo.

"At my own expense for two and a half years I took elocution lessons in Hamilton to improve my oral grammar.

"I used to stand in the middle of a room with a stack of books on my head constantly repeating: 'How now, brown cow.'

"To be a professional media broadcaster I had to improve my skills and training was something that helped me get where I am today.

"After an endless number of auditions, Radio New Zealand finally took me on board as a race caller."

Simon was one of the original broadcasters with Trackside when the free-to-air television channel was launched in New Zealand and spent three years in Singapore as a race caller.

"The time with Trackside and also in Singapore helped me pick up a few tricks of the trade. While I was based in Singapore, I called the Singapore International Cup and that was a race worth $6 million [local currency] and you had the best horses from Europe and the United States competing.

"During my time in Singapore, it made you realise how small an industry the New Zealand racing product is on the world stage. Having a freak like Sunline come out of New Zealand has done a massive amount of good promoting the New Zealand product overseas."

When Simon returned to New Zealand in 2001 he wanted to take a break from race calling but soon found that he missed it.

He landed a race calling job covering the Waikato, Waipa Racing Club and Cambridge Jockey Club meetings.

"With the support of the three Waikato clubs and the Auckland Racing Club I now get the honour and pleasure of calling my first NZ Derby. I've called a stack of massive stake money races in Singapore and also when Horlicks won her second $1 million race at Ellerslie but nothing beats calling a NZ Derby."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY