Livengood is “living good” at Northfield Park

Maybe when you have bowled twelve 300 games, calling one of the biggest events in harness racing for the first time is nothing to get overly nervous about. That’s what Northfield Park’s new announcer Kenny Livengood was saying on the eve of the $200,000 Battle of Lake Erie.

“It’s just another race, right,” the 24-year-old Albany native asked rhetorically. “That’s what I’m trying to tell myself. It’s nine horses lining up and in 20 minutes after that race ends, I’ll be calling another one.” Livengood, who started just last Saturday in his new role, admitted that he is both excited and nervous as this is the biggest race to date that he will be calling. Drawing on life experiences such as that first perfect game of bowling can only help, though.

“The day I bowled the first 300 game, I was 14 and I had to sign some verification forms about the ball I used, etc.,” Livengood recounted. “My hands were still shaking while I was signing those papers 30 minutes after I threw the last ball, I was so nervous.”

He said his broadcasting started at a young age with him relaying Yankee games to his grandma. “She lived in Florida and was a Yankee fan,” he explained. “I would come home from school and call the games to her over the phone. I always went to the track back then, too and I just started to pick it up. I started to race call off the TV a ton, and I sent a bunch of race calls out to a group of five or six track announcers.”

Livengood only got one reply, but that was all that he needed. “Johnathan Horowitz at Arapahoe Park in Colorado was the only one that responded to me,” he said. “So, I flew out there for July 4th weekend in 2016 and I called four races. I was 17, and my first race was a six-horse field.” The adage that you never forget your first applies here. “Lightning Luna was the winner,” he recalled instantaneously.

From Colorado, Livengood made his way to North Dakota and Chippewa Downs. “Mike James got me hooked up there,” he remembered. “He was doing it, but he couldn’t do it for that one summer, so I took the gig. I ended up doing it twice.”

Livengood’s next move was closer to home. “In 2018, I filled in for just four races at Saratoga. That was my test of: can you do it on the microphone, because I had been calling qualifiers but not races for purses,” he said. Then the next year, I filled in a few more times, then Covid happened. I didn’t call anything in 2020, and in 2021, I called four or five days, but last year, their announcer Mike Sardella had me do 40 cards.” He added that he has also filled in announcing full cards at Vernon Downs, Freehold Raceway and Tioga Downs.

So last year, Livengood called the races every Sunday while maintaining a full-time job as an Assistant Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual. But that is in the past now. The opportunity at Northfield was too good to pass up. “It’s a full-time job doing something I love, working for a great company, the benefits are good, and I’m trying to work my way up,” he explained matter-of-factly.

Dave Bianconi, Director of Racing Operations at Northfield Park described his decision to hire Livengood.

“Michael Carter and I were listening to the tape of a few applicants,” he recounted. “He told me that this young guy, Kenny Livengood is backup announcer at Saratoga Harness. I heard one race and said: “hire him”. If he calls a race this well at 24, the sky is the limit for him.”

Livengood brings a fresh approach with him and youthful enthusiasm. “I feel like I’m a fan first and with a lot of the close finishes, I am very excited and animated,” he said. “It’s good racing and me making it fun and exciting.” Still, he is always looking to improve. One of the areas he is exploring is using different terms and dialogues during his race calls, so it doesn’t always sound the same. “I go back and listen to all of my race calls on my drive home,” he commented. “I make mental notes of what I might want to say that will make races sound different, and fresh.”

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It certainly seems that Northfield is in good hands with the young, fresh voice of Livengood.

by Garnet Barnsdale, for Harnesslink.com