Trackside with Mike Battaglia

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Mike Battaglia admits to being just a bit nervous about calling his first Thoroughbred horse race.

It was 1972 at Miles Park, a now-defunct Louisville track where Battaglia’s father, the late John Battaglia, was general manager. Battaglia’s dad wanted him to be the track’s new announcer, succeeding legendary race caller Chic Anderson.

“I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know if I can do it,”’ Mike Battaglia recalls. “Dad said, ‘Well, don’t worry. No. 1, nobody comes to Miles Park. No. 2, the sound system is so bad nobody will hear you. And No. 3, I won’t fire you if you mess up.”’

Thus was a career born. And what a career it’s been.

Battaglia has called thousands of horse races over 45 years, including 19 Kentucky Derbies. He worked numerous Triple Crown and Breeder’s Cup races during 21 years with NBC, as well as calling hundreds of lesser races at numerous Kentucky tracks.

He was a professional racetrack odds maker; was host for local racing shows on radio and TV; provided race odds and information for newspapers; and was a racetrack executive. He was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame this summer.

Now 67, Battaglia is finally cutting back. A little.

He retired from on-air duties at Keeneland after its 2017 fall meet, having worked there since 1974. He previously had closed out his 43-year stint announcing at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky, as well retiring as a network race analyst and announcer.

“I’ll miss it,” Battaglia said. “But it got to the where I’d had enough.

“With all the jobs I did at Keeneland, I was putting in 13- and 14-hour days there counting driving from home in Northern Kentucky. I thought it was affecting my work. And I felt like if I couldn’t do it right, I didn’t want to do it.”

Battaglia, a Northern Kentucky native, got his first job at 22, managing publicity at the old Latonia track near Cincinnati. He was soon announcing at several tracks, often succeeding Chic Anderson when he switched jobs. He also tackled things like broadcasting “The Race of The Day At Keeneland,” with legendary sportscaster Cawood Ledford and Lexington’s Tom Hammond.

His big breakthrough was calling the 1978 Kentucky Derby, when Affirmed beat Alydar on his way to the Triple Crown.

“That was my first Derby,” Battaglia said. “My last was 1996, when Grindstone beat Cavonnier in one of the closest Derbies ever.”

Battaglia credits Hammond with helping him into network television.

“NBC needed somebody to do handicapping,” Battaglia recalled. “Tom got them to bring me in, and I covered all the Breeder’s Cup and Triple Crown races for them up through two years ago.”

Battaglia has a wealth of racing memories: Like almost choking up the first time he saw famed jockey Bill Shoemaker after the car wreck that left him permanently paralyzed.

He remembers breeder Tom Gentry sending a helicopter to pick him up at Churchill Downs and fly him to one of Gentry’s big Lexington parties. Gentry died recently.

Battaglia also remembers anxious moments, like calling the 1983 Derby when it was so gloomy he struggled to identify individual horses turning for home.

“I knew Sunny’s Halo was leading, but I was real nervous about horses behind him. Fortunately, he held on and I picked up the others in the stretch.”

"You have to be good, but you’ve got to get the breaks. And I got a lot of breaks.” —Mike Battaglia 

His race calling now behind him, Battaglia isn’t taking to any rocking chairs. He’ll continue to prepare the morning line at Keeneland, and well as providing expert picks for the track. He also will remain as associate vice president at Turfway Park.

“When I look back, it’s all been unbelievable,” he said.

“It could have gone so many different ways if it weren’t for so many people. If it wasn’t for my father; if it wasn’t for Tom Hammond; it if wasn’t for Chic Anderson. Sometimes, you have to be lucky. You have to be good, but you’ve got to get the breaks. And I got a lot of breaks.”

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