Woodbine’s new voice accentuates the positive
Woodbine racetrack doesn’t just have a new voice — it has a whole new accent.
Robert Geller — born in the U.K. and raised in Australia — was named Friday as the new announcer at the Toronto track. He takes over from longtime caller Dan Loiselle, who will work his last race on May 31.
“He’s an icon,” Geller, 55, said from his current residence in Tacoma, Wash. “I am following someone who has given their entire career to Woodbine, 38 years. I am excited and I am honoured.”
Geller comes to Woodbine from Emerald Downs in Seattle, where he has been the only announcer in the track’s 20-year history.
A horse-racing lover from a young age, Geller trained to become a qualified speech pathologist, but was drawn to the industry. So after announcing races throughout Australia and then in Hong Kong, a fateful trip to Woodbine in 1993 led Geller to pursue race-calling in North America.
“My first trip to Woodbine in 1993 had a great impact on me,” Geller said. He was able to announce a race during that first visit. “The vice-president of racing at the time, John Whitson, encouraged me to look for a job in North America and that is how I found Emerald Downs, which was re-opening after being shut down for a few years.”
While Geller knows that horse racing fans, like most sports fans, can be a fickle group — he has a fairly strong accent; something different for Canadian racing fans — he hopes that his passion and knowledge of the sport comes through.
Indeed, when Emerald Downs announced that Geller was leaving, his Facebook page was flooded with dozens of Seattle racing fans who adore their personable announcer.
“Woodbine offers so much that an announcer dreams of, such as it’s incredible turf racing,” said Geller. “I am going to take it one day at a time, try to find my comfort level and hopefully develop my own fan base.”