He took the lead so fast after the final turn that NBC Sports race announcer Tom Durkin didn't notice that the gelding took the lead until it had a three-length opening ahead of the pack.
After many years of submitting work to Sydney Bulletin, he joined their staff in 1898, as a replacement for Tom Durkin and remained there until 1915.
He may have studied at the Melbourne National Gallery Art School and certainly took private lessons with Tom Durkin, but was mostly self-taught.
Entered in the 1991 Breeders' Cup Mile, held that year at Churchill Downs, Opening Verse was up against what racecaller Tom Durkin described as "an exceptionally strong field" with stars such as Priolo, the French Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, and In Excess, the American Horse of the Year contender and betting favorite who came into the race having won four Grade 1 races that year.
Her late charge was so strong that racetrack announcer Tom Durkin called her a "grey bullet".
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The best-known horse-race callers since the dawn of the television age have been Chic Anderson, Dave Johnson, Trevor Denman and Tom Durkin.