Former Oaklawn caller Vic Stauffer will fill in at Lone Star

Vic Stauffer, who was the race caller at Oaklawn until two weeks ago, will fill in as the announcer at Lone Star Park from April 13 through Kentucky Derby day, May 6.

"I'm very excited about it.," Stauffer told Horse Racing Nation on Thursday. "I went to the Breeders Cup in 2004 when Ghostzapper won the Classic (at Lone Star Park). And I just thought they put on one of the best Breeders' Cups that I'd been to, and I've been to a lot of them. It was the last time I was at Lone Star, and I always wanted to get back. I really enjoyed it there. The facility is fabulous."

"And the fans of Texas are really terrific," Stauffer said. "I mean, they know their horse racing. They had racing there for many, many moons and great racing even before it was parimutuel. So they know their horse racing there."

Stauffer also will join a pre-race handicapping show with Rodney Nelson and Rick Lee.

"They're both elite handicappers and that'll inspire me to try to pick a few winners down there, even though they've kind of got home-court advantage," Stauffer said. "But that's something I'm looking forward to doing as well.

"I strongly believe that the way to cultivate horse players is not to tell them, it's to teach them," he continued. "The only way you're going to get a guy to change from $2 to 20 to 200 is if he knows how to develop his own opinion. And what I try to do with my handicapping shows is I try to help them cultivate their own opinion. And that's the way you're going to get people that are going to really become true dyed-in-the wool horse players, and that's what we need, and that's what we love having in the industry."

Stauffer announced in a March 10 Twitter post that he had left Oaklawn after he and track officials "disagreed about the severity of a tweet" he posted. The Twitter exchange to which he was referring was since removed.

Stauffer was replaced at Oaklawn by Jim Byers, who had been the regular caller at Lone Star Park. Oaklawn's meet ends Kentucky Derby day. At the time of Stauffer's departure, Daily Racing Form reported that Oaklawn would begin a search for a new caller after the meet ended.

Stauffer began calling races at Oaklawn in 2017 and was the sixth full-time track announcer in the track's history. In a race-calling career that dates back to 1985, Stauffer had called races at tracks including Hollywood Park, Gulfstream Park, Hialeah, Golden Gate Fields and Garden State Park.

So what might come after his gig at Lone Star?

"I want to be a steward," Stauffer said. "I have been a steward in three states. I was a steward in California for five years, and then for a year in Wyoming, and then last year, I was chief steward in Colorado. So I'm always looking for opportunities to be a steward. Now that my calendar is basically open year-round, rather than just for six months. I'm hoping that'll that'll afford me some other opportunities."