Francis will spend around 12 hours trackside at Wagga to call 10 greyhound races before backing up for the 11-strong harness racing program that night.

It’s the second of three consecutive double meetings at the Showground, but with extra demand from the harness racing fraternity has added to the workload this week.

Francis has been taking the extra load in his stride, even if it does mean a sleepless night or two.

“It’s been flat out and then last Saturday I had to go to Berrigan as well,” Francis said. 

“You don’t sleep until about 2 o’clock in the morning as your head is still spinning.

“Last week I went to Berrigan off three or four hours sleep because you try to think of so much during the day when you go home you have to sit up before you can go to bed.”

The 60-year-old has been calling for a combination of greyhounds, harness and gallops for the last 36 years.

While trying to remember each horse or dog’s form can be daunting, Francis believes the last seven minutes before the race to the crucial time to ensure he calls race right.

“With every race for all race callers it is intense study for about the last six or seven minutes,” he said.

While a regular calling off all three codes each presents unique challenges and Francis said 100 per cent concentration is needed to succeed.

“There are eight dogs that come out for each race with different colours on to what they had last week,” Francis said.

“There is a lot of new dogs from elsewhere coming all the time …. so there is a lot of different dogs and it is the same with the trots.

“There is a huge variety of horses coming from everywhere so if you are going to be a race caller you need to be able to pick up the field in about five or six minutes.

“If you can’t do that there is no point in being a race caller.

“When you call the gallops you have 14 to learn and you have to learn them quickly and there are a lot of colours that are pretty much the same so you go on blinkers and need a certain eye for detail.”

It’s not just calling on race day, Francis sends selections through early in the morning and is on the airways for thoroughbred and greyhounds previews around 30 minutes before the meeting starts.

Adding to an already busy Friday, Francis will attend his aunty Kath’s funeral before heading down to the track.

A believer that the race caller “brings a race alive”, Francis can’t wait for Friday’s racing.

“They are two fantastic programs,” he said.