An awesome horse racing narrator

[Jorge]

Deceased racing narrator extraordinaire, Agapito (“Pito”) Rivera Monge , along with Camarero, Angel Cordero and Eddie Belmonte were perhaps the most emblematic symbols of horse racing in Puerto Rico during the 50s and 60s.

Even today, Rivera Monge is considered a one-off narrator, not only for his no-pause continued racing description style during the unfolding of a race, but also for his witty colloquial pintoresque style where horses practically became human theatrical characters winning by “ a moustache hair” and many other creative traits he invented and patented in society in general.

Even today, more than circa 30 year since his passing, people of all walks of live still use many of his narrating catch-up phrases for their daily conversations and even in court procedures.
I am aware many of you may not understand the Spanish narration, but at least you may try to imagine the magic of his drama. Please click the following example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM4u-meTLs8
(Name of the horses: El Rebelde, Rumba, Tamanaco, Aluvion)

Photo and profiles of Rivera Monge at:

http://famahipismopr.org/propulsores/ag ... pulsor.htm

http://corp.primerahora.com/archivo.asp ... 04&keyword

[Jorge]

Another description by Agapito (Pito) Rivera Monge on Camarero's 55th undefeated victory surpassing Kincsem. Beware that this is a re-creation description done afterwards but nevertheless the magic is still there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CML-KXsAXko

[erhrdt3]

Thanks for posting that Jorge, it's interesting to hear how its done elsewhere.

Wasn't there a trainer....Laz Berrera, that was from Puerto Rico as well?

What was his champion's name...for the life of me I can't remember..getting old!

[Jorge]

I would suggest a visit to the following site:
http://famahipismopr.org/

That is, Salon de la Fama del Hipismo de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame) and their different web section such as the following:

http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2006.pdf
http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2007.pdf
http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2008.pdf
http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2009.pdf
http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2010.pdf
http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2011.pdf
http://famahipismopr.org/Anuario2012.pdf

(p.s. Here are a few translated terms for better identification

Nativos (PR-Breds)

Importados (Non PR-bred)

Duenos (Owners)

Entrenadores (Trainers)

Jinetes (Jockeys)

Medios (Media people)

Propulsores (Sponsors in general)

Criadores (Breeders)

Crianza (Breeding Thoroughbreds)

[apexseal]

No to take away anything from Rivera, but current narrator Norman H. Davila will ultimately be regarded best of the best, again with all due respect to Rivera!

Here's an example:

http://youtu.be/Mb91Dq52VPE

[apexseal]

Thanks for posting that Jorge, it's interesting to hear how its done elsewhere.

Wasn't there a trainer....Laz Berrera, that was from Puerto Rico as well?

What was his champion's name...for the life of me I can't remember..getting old!

Laz Barrera trained both Bold Forbes and Mister Frisky.
Not really sure if Laz was from puerto Rico, although he was from latin descent.

[DDT]

apexseal

Don't forget Laz's Triple Crown winner, Affirmed. Laz was Cuban born.

DDT

[TJ]

Thanks for posting that Jorge, it's interesting to hear how its done elsewhere.

Wasn't there a trainer....Laz Berrera, that was from Puerto Rico as well?

What was his champion's name...for the life of me I can't remember..getting old!

Hi erhrdt,
Laz Barrera was a top trainer....he won the eclipse award for outstanding trainer 4 years in a row. He originally came from Havana, Cuba. TJ

[TJ]

apexseal

Don't forget Laz's Triple Crown winner, Affirmed. Laz was Cuban born.

DDT

Hi DDT,
Whoops....sorry, I didn't see your post concerning Laz' homeland. TJ

[apexseal]

apexseal

Don't forget Laz's Triple Crown winner, Affirmed. Laz was Cuban born.

DDT

Of course! I was just mentioning the most succesfull ones that started their racing career in PR

[Jorge]

I agree that the current race-caller cited will ultimately be regarded as the
the most reknown symbol of racing calling in PR because of his developed mastery and around three decades of precise descriptions ---no questions about that! But the greatness created by Rivera-Monge was and is unparallelled. His style became such a captivating common-guy, witty, entertainment persona, that people of all walks of life just wanted to hear him speaking or race calling regardless they didn't knew a thing about horse racing. His witty conversational style mastery is the reason why he "only lasted" about a decade and a half on horse racing (as opposed to the current race caller) and immediately ended up landing as a TV-host in other endeavours. Not the best of decisions.

By the way, I still remember that when he was about to take the microphone for a race calling the preceding presentation was:
"And now here he comes... the exciting ["excitante"] the emotion-prone
["emocionante"]... Pito Riiiiivera Monge. (Like in a boxing bout presentation). At this point Rivera Monge would answer "Aqui lo teneis "delante", which translates "Here you have him before you"; the latter phrase expressed in an antique chivalry style to make the two words: "excitante" and "emocionante" rhyme with the word "delante". It was like some sort of Jerry Lewis, Jay Leno, and Arsenio Hall kind of character. As per his race narration he was quite precise, for which he was referred to as "Ojo de Aguila" (Eagle Eyed).
Those are the reasons why after so many decades after his passing people from the period still remember him quite vividly. Only the "sui-generis" great ones can achieve this. He was of small height flamboyant kind of guy who used to drive a large Cadillac 2-door coupe.