DEL MAR – The book is titled “The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita.”
But Hernandez was also the voice of Del Mar, calling the races here from 1945 through '67. And his connections to San Diego go much deeper than that.
He was a graduate of Roosevelt Junior High and an attendee of San Diego High and St. Augustine High before dropping out in 1926. A sports writer, with an emphasis on covering and handicapping the races at the Caliente track in Tijuana for the San Diego Tribune and later the San Diego Sun while still in his teens in the late 1920s.
A man who made his major inroad into Los Angeles newspaper (and later racing) circles through his eyewitness account of the robbery of a money truck carrying the weekend receipts of the Agua Caliente Hotel and Casino on National City Highway in May 1929.
At his peak, which lasted for decades, Hernandez was a one-man West Coast conglomerate of the many facets of the thoroughbred industry. His activities encompassed owner, importer, breeder and seller of horses. He was a writer and handicapper for newspapers and race-caller for tracks from Seattle to Del Mar. An energetic, flamboyant and successful general industry promoter. A pioneer in the broadcasting, filming and televising of races.
Oh, and in 1931, the first U.S. agent for legendary jockey Johnny Longden after Longden just walked up and made the request one morning at the Tanforan track in San Francisco.
A man who by all accounts was proud of his Hispanic heritage, but was the formulator and perpetrator of dissemination of false information concerning his birthplace – he said San Francisco; it was really a small mining town in New Mexico – and other pertinent biographical things.
That's the “untold” part of the book. Author Rudolph Alvarado was taken aback to read the surname Hernandez when Joe was mentioned in the book “Seabiscuit” and curious about a Mexican-American who had risen to such prominence in those Anglo-dominated times. The biography uncovering Hernandez's true roots is the result of more than six years of research by Alvarado, much of it in partnership with Joe's son who grew up in San Diego, Rev. Frank Hernandez, a Jesuit priest now living in Sacramento.
Commitments to racing kept Joe Hernandez in L.A., San Francisco and Seattle – with brief gigs in the East on occasion – through the early part of his career. And commitments kept Hernandez from being the first race-caller here when Del Mar opened in 1937 – even though he would have been the first choice of founder Bing Crosby.
Instead, John Canady and Oscar Otis worked the microphones until Hernandez took over when racing resumed in 1945 after a three-year hiatus during World War II. He'd remain in place until an expansion of the California racing calendar made for overlapping dates at Bay Meadows and Del Mar, Hernandez honoring a longtime commitment to the Northern California track.
One thing Hernandez deeply regretted when his Del Mar run ended was that the annual “barbecue on the beach” party he threw, a fete one area newspaperman described as the “social highlight of the season,” would be no more.
Harry Henson and now Trevor Denman complete the roster of full-time race-callers here.
“You couldn't find three more unalike announcers than Joe, Harry and Trevor,” said Dan Smith, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club senior media coordinator. “But they were all very good in their own way.”
Hernandez “was a character,” Smith said. “He was volatile, lovable, sometimes a pain in the butt, but overall a great guy. . . . He had a unique style, a distinctive voice, and when he got up for a big race he was as good as anyone ever was.”
The first chapter in the book, and the last track on the accompanying CD, is “Joe's last call.”
Hernandez had called 15,587 consecutive races at Santa Anita from the track's Christmas Day opening in 1934 to Jan. 27, 1972. That morning he was kicked in the lower abdomen by a horse at Hollywood Park. He passed up opportunities for medical attention and passed out partway through the call of the first race.
Smith, then assistant director of publicity at Santa Anita, and alternate caller Terry Gilligan rushed to the booth. Gilligan picked up the microphone and finished describing the race. Smith picked up the phone and called for medical personnel to be sent to the booth.
It was all caught on a tape that Hernandez had running. He taped every race for possible use on his nightly radio show. Smith didn't know his words had been recorded until 36 years later, when the book was about to come out.
Smith visited Hernandez that night at Arcadia Methodist Hospital and found him in good spirits and seemingly OK. But Hernandez took a turn for the worse and died five days later at age 62.
Information about the book and purchasing it can be found at www.voiceofsantaanita.com.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
