NEW YORK - U.S. horse racing announcer Dave Johnson, who called Triple Crown races for ABC television for two decades, on Wednesday sued the makers of Bill Murray’s 2014 film “St. Vincent” for using his signature phrase “and down the stretch they come” without permission.
Johnson said this would likely confuse the public, tarnishing his rights to a phrase “inextricably linked” with him. “‘And down the stretch they come’ embodies all that is good about thoroughbred racing,” Johnson’s lawyer Andrew Mollica said in a phone interview.
Pathetic money grab.
How can you trademark such a generic phrase?
Watching a horse race a few years back I said “and down the stretch they come” without ever having heard that announcer... just saying
Horse racing's use of famed U.S. race horses draws death. See what we did there, Mr. Johnson?
B.F.D.