By DRF.com
CYPRESS, Calif. (Aug. 2, 2019) — Michael Wrona will replace Ed Burgart as the year-round announcer at Los Alamitos beginning in December, the track announced Friday.
Wrona, 53, will begin calling races at Los Alamitos during the track’s two-week daytime Thoroughbred meeting that begins Dec. 5 and will start calling the night-time Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meeting on Dec. 27.
The Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred meeting operates year-round on a Friday-through-Sunday basis.
Burgart is retiring as track announcer Dec. 15, having held the position since the early 1980s.
“It’s a great honor to be selected as Ed Burgart’s successor at Los Alamitos,” Wrona said in a statement released by Los Alamitos. “However, it’s also a somewhat daunting task because Ed personifies Los Al and is truly irreplaceable.”
A native of Queensland, Australia, Wrona previously called races at Santa Anita from the spring of 2016 through the fall of 2018 before being dismissed last November.
In the past, Wrona has called at tracks such as Arlington Park, Golden Gate Fields, Hollywood Park, and Lone Star Park. This summer, Wrona has called races at Arizona Downs and Santa Rosa and is scheduled to call the brief Kentucky Downs meeting from Aug. 31 to Sept. 12.
Wrona worked briefly during Los Alamitos daytime Thoroughbred meetings in 2014 and 2015.
Burgart, 67, began working at Los Alamitos in 1977 as part of the track’s publicity department. In addition to his announcing duties, Burgart also writes program comments and the track’s morning line.
Burgart called the daytime Thoroughbred meetings at Los Alamitos in the summer of 2014 but later relinquished that position. Since then, he has worked as a paddock commentator between races for the Thoroughbred meetings, a position that will continue through the December meeting.