Louisville learned of the loss of two people who were influential of the Churchill Downs area yesterday, with the new that came early in the day that 70-year-old Pharmacist Lee Wagner, the long time owner of Wagner's Pharmacy (and more importantly lunch counter) died on Saturday after a long bout with diabetes.
Nick Zito told The Courier-Journal, "To me, you go to the Derby Museum, then your next stop is Wagner's. It's part of America. ... It's an institution."
From The Courier-Journal:
The business at Fourth Street and Central Avenue near Churchill Downs serves the area as a popular short-order grill for breakfast and lunch; a tack shop through its sister store Becker & Durski Turf Goods; an outlet to buy Kentucky Derby souvenirs, tip sheets and liquor; and a place where stable employees could cash their paychecks when no one else would.
"There were hundreds or thousands of horsemen that he's helped through the years with problems, whether they were related to a horse or to their own medical problems," trainer Don Winfree said.
Then the news followed later in the day that 47-year-old race caller Luke Kruytbosch was found dead in his Evansville, Ind. home -- presumably due to his heart.
Again, from The Courier-Journal:
Kruytbosch never got tired of being at the races, regularly going to River Downs on Churchill Downs' dark days. Horse owner Mike Pegram, Kruytbosch's close friend, said the announcer would leave Turf Paradise several days early each spring so that he could stop at tracks in New Mexico and Texas on his way to Louisville.
"Luke was a race fan before he was an announcer," Pegram said. "I hate to call it that he was the common man's race caller, but that's what it was. He just got the job done day in and day out. … What I loved about it was it didn't matter if he was calling the Kentucky Derby or a $3,000 claimer at Turf Paradise, he gave it his best."
Kruytbosch left Hollywood Park to become Churchill's fifth announcer. When he called the 125th Derby his first year, he became the first to call both the Derby and quarter-horse racing's biggest event, Ruidoso Downs' All American Futurity.
"My favorite memory of Luke was from his first Derby back in '99," Churchill spokesman John Asher said. "His lifetime goal was to call the Derby, and he'd finally done that; he'd brought Charismatic home before 151,000. You'd think after a day like that, you might want to sit back and relax a little bit, congratulate yourself on a career accomplishment. The next day he was at River Downs, watching races and betting bottom-level claimers.
2 comments:
I will miss Luke at Churchill and the Pea Patch very much. He was fantastic.
Like so many others, I was shocked at hearing about the loss of Luke Kruytbosch this past week. I had only a passing acquaintance with him but I should share one memorable experience from a night at Hoosier Park when he stopped to visit the Equibase team at Hoosier Park a few years back.
I was working with another Equibase field team member who shall remain nameless (John McDulin). We were grinding our way through a ten race card at Hoosier Park in Anderson, Indiana, when, as the last race of the night approached, the sliding door of the trailer office on the roof slid open and in walked Luke with some liquid refreshment for himself and two thirsty chartcallers.
(Mind you, we weren't going to start in on those beers Luke brought for us until the last race chart was completed, but we were happy he had been thinking about us all the same.)
Luke reported that he had been visiting with Cliff Guilliams at the Dueling Grounds (Kentucky Downs) earlier that day and had made the nearly 300 mile drive up to Hoosier because he had a day off -- Now that's a race fan!
Luke was in a good mood and he shared an account of the fun afternoon he had spent with Cliff at the old Dueling Grounds. His enthusiasm for racing and a good time for all was pretty infectious.
As the horses made their way on to the track, Luke turns to my partner and says "Hey Guys, I have an idea. Let me call this chart."
My partner turned back to look at me and I was shaking my head "No" as discreetly as I could. I mean, how do you say "No" to a guy who just brought you a beer? Especially if that guy is the voice of the Kentucky Derby? Well, my partner relented and handed over his binoculars. I had the presence of mind to turn on both tape recorders -- the one that we used to record Luke's call of the race and the one I used as a backup while I also called chart margins quietly from the edge of platform on the Hoosier Park roof.
A few years later, a friend of mine who was also friends with Luke happened to be talking to Luke on his cell phone one day and he mentioned I had stopped to visit.
Luke paused for a moment and then said "Ask him if he still has that tape of me calling the race."
Yeah, Luke, I still do. And I laughed through some tears thinking that Cliff was waiting for you on Sunday night and had a cold one waiting for you just like you did for us.
We'll miss you buddy.
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