Harvey Pack

Track announcer John Imbriale has announced that he will retire following a 44-year career with the New York Racing Association. Imbriale's tenure with NYRA dates to 1979 when he won a New York Daily News contest, giving him the opportunity to call a race and work with the NYRA press office. In 1990, the Queens, New York native became Tom Durkin's backup and along the way, took on other responsibilities at NYRA by working with Harvey Pack on the Inside Racing program, and in a variety of roles within NYRA...

Like tens of thousands of racing fans in the Northeast, I became addicted to Harvey Pack when he began broadcasting his "Pack at the Track" radio program during the 1970s. Anyone who could get away with the kind of the totally 'Noo Yawk' attitude he put forth in a sport that always prided itself on being serious about its "Sport of Kings" sobriquet had to be someone who could probably get away with anything--and for the most part, that's what Harvey Pack did. When I first met him in the...

Harvey Pack, the engagingly witty curmudgeon who entertained and informed decades of racetrack fans in New York and beyond as a popular radio, television and handicapping seminar host, has died at 94. Pack's death was confirmed by the New York Racing Association (NYRA), which employed him from 1974 to 1998. Daily Racing Form reported the cause was complications from cancer. Pack made a lasting impression as a self-deprecating "wiseguy's wiseguy" who passionately advocated for the underdog while never running out of strange-but-true racetrack tales and anecdotes, many of which involved...