Longtime Penn National Announcer John Bogar Retires Feb. 5, 2026

John Bogar, the voice racegoers at Hollywood Casino at Penn National have heard for decades, announced his retirement effective Feb. 5, 2026, bringing to a close roughly 45 years with the track and a tenure as lead racecaller that began in 1985. Bogar’s departure removes a steady presence from the nightly program, a role that combined play-by-play cadence with the morning-line work that helps set wagering markets for each card.

Bogar’s duties extended beyond the microphone. In addition to calling the fields since 1985, he handled morning-line odds-making responsibilities for every racing card and co-hosted, with Fred Lipkin, the racetrack-broadcast handicap show Racing Alive during the 1980s and 1990s. That program was one of the nation’s early simulcast handicapping shows broadcast from a racetrack and signaled Penn National’s early embrace of televised and wagering-driven content that has become central to modern racing’s business model.

The practical choreography of a race day underscores Bogar’s role. PennLive captured the moment when Bogar’s call completes the pre-race sequence, noting the track crew is responsible for safety “from the time they near the gate for loading into their individual stalls until the time longtime track announcer John Bogar declares ‘They’re off.’” That line is the audible cue for thousands of bettors and viewers, and Bogar’s timing and tone helped set expectations for wagering flows and in-race attention.

Colleagues in the stable area and gate crew reflected the tight operations around those seconds. PennLive quoted trainer Bernie Houghton on the gatecrew’s judgment: “These guys have an incredibly vital job, and as a trainer I try to give them as much information about the horse or horses I have up here, and they call the shots from there. These guys know what’s going on and know what they’re doing. I may have an idea and suggest it, as opposed to what they’re thinking, but nine times out of 10 their suggestion is going to be the one that works.” Lindy Riggs, Penn National’s head starter, recalled his own path into the gate crew and the camaraderie that underpins reliable race day execution: “I just kind of fell in to the job, and it’s been going pretty well ever since,” he says. “But we all enjoy it, and the camaraderie among us is one of the key things that keeps us going and functioning as well as we do as a team.”

Industry commentators have framed Bogar’s longevity as rare. Horseracingnation called him “the dean in North America coming up on 40 years at Penn National,” and drew a pop-culture comparison for his partnership with Fred Lipkin, likening their telecast durability to fictional television characters. Paulick Report described his exit as the end of a “‘Highly Rewarding’ career,” and noted Penn National has begun searching for a new announcer while planning a special evening later in the 2026 season to honor Bogar’s contributions.

Bogar’s retirement is more than a personnel change. It touches wagering, local broadcast identity, and the sport’s relationship with longtime fans who tune in for both the calls and the morning line. For bettors, race callers and morning-line makers shape cadence, perceived momentum and, ultimately, handle. For the track, replacing a 45-year fixture will be a hiring decision that weighs voice, timing, handicap knowledge and broadcast savvy. Penn National’s search will test how tracks recruit talent in a landscape Horseracingnation described as increasingly nomadic for announcers.

Fans should expect a formal tribute later in the season and a public hiring process for a successor. The next voice for Grantville will inherit not only Bogar’s microphone but a role that bridges racing operations, wagering markets and the cultural heartbeat of evenings at Penn National.