With the increased coverage of American harness racing now beamed into Australia via Sky Racing, punters are given a better opportunity to follow former Australian and New Zealand competitors during their careers abroad. 

Those tuning into watch Yonkers on May 12 will hear a familiar Australian voice with New South Wales broadcaster Fred Hastings confirming he will be behind the binoculars during the meeting.

“I will be calling a couple of races at Yonkers at the Monday night meeting American time, so it will be Tuesday morning in Australia,” Hastings said.

“I told my parents when I was nine-years-old that I wanted to be a race caller. I can remember watching a lot of American movies with a racing flavour as a child thinking I would love the chance to call a race over there one day and I will now get the chance to do just that.”

A lot of work has happened behind the scenes to ensure Hastings got the opportunity to call his first international race.

“This family trip has been in the pipeline for quite a while, so I spoke to the team at Sky International about heading over and asked whether they could make an approach to Yonkers on my behalf to see if I could call a race which they did,” Hastings explained.

“John Hernan is the broadcaster at Yonkers and I am very grateful that I will be given the opportunity by John to call a couple of races. I believe the races I will be calling will be timed to suit the Australian coverage of the meeting.”

Hastings has only arace outside of New South Wales once in his long career.

“I called my first meeting for Sky Sports Radio or 2KY as it was known then on June 13 1986 at Nowra and the only time I have called outside of New South Wales was when I got the chance to call a race at Albion Park at the farewell meeting for David Fowler,” Hastings said.

“I have a real fear of flying, so I haven’t done much travelling outside of Australia. I have been to New Zealand but that was on a cruise, so this holiday is a new frontier for me.”

While Hastings is looking forward to the challenge of calling at Yonkers he is not planning on doing anything different to what he does at Menangle, Penrith or Bankstown.

“I’m just going to call the races as I would at tracks around Sydney and I won’t be including anything that doesn’t need to be in the call,” Hastings said.

“What I do in Australia I will do at Yonkers, I’m really looking forward to the opportunity and I thank everyone that has made it happen.”

• HRNSW Media