The Voice of Quarter Horse Racing
For more than 50 years, the voice of Tom Dawson has been synonymous with speed, describing Quarter Horse racing’s most electrifying moments for nationwide audiences. His career, which began not behind a microphone but in the track offices as a racing secretary at venues like Ruidoso Downs and Sunland Park in the early 1970s, quickly transitioned to television.
Dawson, an El Paso, Texas native, made his All American Futurity-G1 debut on a live telecast in 1974. Since then, he has become a fixture across major networks, including ESPN, NBC, ABC, and others, lending his expertise to countless horse racing telecasts. Today, Dawson remains tied on to the sport he loves while working with The Cowboy Channel. Dawson produces 10 to 11 “Gate to Wire” broadcasts each year, guiding viewers through the action of Quarter Horse racing’s Triple Crown and other top stakes races at Ruidoso Downs, Remington Park, Lone Star Park, and Albuquerque Downs, solidifying his status as a dean of broadcasting in Quarter Horse racing.
The Early Years: From the Condition Book to the Camera
Decades before his voice became the standard for Quarter Horse racing’s biggest events, Dawson’s involvement with the sport started with a far more basic but essential connection to the races. His early roles provided him with a unique perspective on the entire industry. Dawson credits his early experience for shaping his appreciation for racing’s inner mechanics.
“I used to read race results on the radio as one of my first jobs,” Dawson shared of his entry to the racing industry. “I worked in mutuels for a number of years when I was in college. When I got out of school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and they offered me a job at the racetrack. I did a little in the racing office and then I worked some in publicity, doing race results and all that. A fraternity brother of mine also worked at the racetrack and he became racing secretary at Sunland Park back in 1970 or so. I was his assistant for a while. When he left, I became racing secretary at Ruidoso Downs, Sunland Park, and the New Mexico State Fair for about nine years.
“In those days, my opinion was that the racing office was the greatest place to be because nothing else could happen until you did your job,” Dawson added. “If there was no race card there was nothing to publicize and no one else could do their job until you did yours. I thought that was cool. But it was a grinding job. When you do a circuit like that, it’s 51 weeks a year, so it got to be a real challenge. I did a couple of other things in the industry after that. We had a bloodstock insurance company, and we bought and sold some horses as well.”
Dawson’s practical knowledge from the racing office proved invaluable when his career took a turn toward broadcasting. The shift was facilitated by the burgeoning cable sports landscape, which was hungry for packaged content from industry experts.
“About 1982, I had a chance to do a lot of racing through the company Winnercomm in Oklahoma. They got in on the ground floor of ESPN,” Dawson recalled. “The secret to ESPN was that they used packagers for several sports, which kept their staffs small. They didn’t have to worry about having experts on staff. That’s how we got in. We did Quarter Horse racing all over the place, California, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and then branched out into Thoroughbred racing around 1986. So, I wound up doing Thoroughbred racing as well for ESPN for about 25 years as their lead producer.
“The in front of the camera stuff came pretty natural for me,” Dawson continued. “The first big TV deal I had was with All American Network. Being racing secretary taught me organization. It taught me how to lay something out, how to see it, and maneuver it, and I used those lessons I learned writing a three-week condition book to produce shows. I have probably done 1,000 shows. The layout is the key. If you lay it out right and it is live, things can happen, and you have to go with the flow. If you’ve got the right format and the right underpinning, you can always adjust as things develop. I learned that being a racing secretary.”
Mastering the Rundown
Dawson’s tenure in television, both as an on-air personality and a lead producer, allowed him to master the art of putting together a live broadcast. He stresses that organizing complex, time-sensitive material is the core skill required for successful show production. And it is the meticulous process of structuring a broadcast that allows a team to navigate the unpredictability of live sports.
“Every show format starts with a rundown,” Dawson explained. “That’s a producer’s job to lay that out. And usually in conjunction with your team of experts who tell you what a good story might be or a follow-up on something. Then you have to get your commercials in, deliverables in, all the things you’ve sold. Then basically you adjust as you go.
“For example, working with NBC on the Breeders’ Cup telecast for the main show on Saturday, by the time we do the show, we’ll be on version 10 or 11 of the format because it’s such a huge show. So, you lay your show out, see how much time you have, see what you have to do, and what you want to do, then hit your times.”
Decades of live television have given Dawson a master’s degree in broadcasting, earned alongside some of the greatest names in the business.
“I have learned a lot of things from a lot of different people through the years,” Dawson said. “One of the things I learned from Dave Johnson, who I worked with a lot, was he used to create “If Win” cards. He would create cards on every horse in the race, and he would have key points of each horse on the cards. So, I learned that little trick from Dave. I also learned how to be a better on-camera interviewer working with Dave. He was such a good friend of mine from early on.”
Dawson acknowledges that his on-air success is the result of applying lessons learned from his esteemed colleagues, highlighting the importance of mentorship and collaboration.
Earning Praise from Jim McKay
“I have been so fortunate to be able to work with some of the all-time greats,” Dawson said. “Jim McKay and Jack Whitaker, you’re in rarified air working with those guys. Probably the greatest compliment I was ever paid was on an ABC show, and I was working with Curt Gowdy, Jr., who was producing.
“We were doing a racing show and Jim McKay always did the tease. They would put together video clips and Jim would come in and watch the video a few times and take a yellow tablet and go into a back room in the trailer and he would write. He would come back and watch the video again, make some notes and after a little while he would be ready to voice (voice over the teaser).”
“For a couple shows, I was responsible for…
