Called to the Post: Music grad has iconic job as Churchill Downs bugler
April 29th, 2008
UofL alumnus Steve Buttleman is the bugler at Churchill Downs.
By Kevin Hyde
It was a hectic morning for Steve Buttleman. The auto repair shop was taking longer than expected to fix the brakes on his wife’s car and it looked like he was going to be late for the audition — in this case, a very special audition.
Along with eight other local horn players, Buttleman was scheduled to try out for the job of Churchill Downs’ bugler, the uniformed herald who issues the iconic “Call to the Post” before each horse race, including the race, the Kentucky Derby.
After the mechanics finally put the finishing touches on the car — serenaded by the practicing bugler in their parking lot — Buttleman raced off to the Downs, arriving several minutes late and feeling rather underdressed.
“I wasn’t sure what to wear,” he recalled. “So I just put on a jacket and shirt along with some shorts and tennis shoes. Of course, when I got there, I saw that everybody else was wearing a coat and tie. I considered leaving.”
But he soldiered on, eventually walking out onto a makeshift stage surrounded by cameras and performing his best “Call to the Post.” The candidates were judged on sound and presentation. Buttleman soon advanced to a two-person “playoff” before eventually winning the job.
That was fall 1994 and Buttleman has been the Churchill Downs bugler ever since. At the time of the audition, he was a student in the UofL School of Music, studying trumpet under the tutelage of professors Mike Tunnell and Jerry Amend. It actually was his second stint at the school.
He originally came to UofL in 1983 from his native Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to study under Leon Rapier, the trumpet professor who was a fixture at the music school from 1954 until his death in 1988.
“There was a pipeline of music students from Cedar Rapids to UofL,” Buttleman said. “At one time, I think five of us were in the university’s symphony.”
But shortly after arriving on campus, Buttleman “got out of music” for several years, studying biology and even pursuing a nursing degree. He also “met a girl,” UofL medical intern Rhonda Metzger, who is now local pediatrician Rhonda Metzger Buttleman. The couple has two kids, ages 17 and 14.
Buttleman returned to the school of music in the early 1990s and finally — 24 years after first enrolling — finished his degree in trumpet last year. While helping to rear two children certainly slowed his studies, it was the school’s “piano proficiency” requirement that was his biggest stumbling block, he said.
“The piano was my cross to bear. I’m used to three buttons on a trumpet. The piano has 88 keys.”
As Churchill Downs’ bugler, Buttleman works every race of both the fall and spring meets. The 2008 Kentucky Derby on May 3 will be his 13th Run for the Roses.
“Everybody asks if I get nervous knowing that there’s 150,000 people at the track and millions watching on TV,” he said. “Or they ask me if I’ve ever flubbed a note.
“I have signs all around the pagoda that say ‘Focus.’ I want to play perfectly every time.”
Speaking of the pagoda — the small, infield pavilion overlooking the winner’s circle from where the bugler emerges to play “The Call” — Buttleman has taken the opportunity to personalize it over the years.
“I’ve now got a fridge and microwave in there, and several photos on the walls,” he said. “It needed some cleaning up. It’s 80 years old and held together by white paint.”
On Oaks Day and Derby Day, he arrives at the track between 7:20 and 7:30 a.m. Before post-Sept. 11 measures heightened security on Derby Day, he would station himself by Gate 1 and play “Call to the Post” when the gates opened for people headed to the Infield. (He also would hang around the gate with other Churchill employees and watch the annual shake down of people trying to sneak in booze.)
“Whenever security would throw away something good, we would all yell, ’Oh no!’ ” he said laughing. “People don’t realize how much hard work has gone into preparing for that day. Once the gates open, it’s just really exciting for everyone.”
Buttleman plays a herald extended bugle and herald trumpet at the track.
“The bugle is stark, direct,” he said. “It’s not very melodic. And ’Call to the Post’ isn’t the easiest tune to play on the bugle. There’s a natural, acoustic break that the tune passes through several times.”
Buttleman plays “My Old Kentucky Home” and the “Star Spangled Banner” on the trumpet.
“The Call” is played when the thoroughbreds first touch the track. That is, unless Buttleman sees a horse bucking or acting erratic. “I figure there’s probably enough things spooking the horse without me blowing my horn.”
Buttleman said the job comes with a small level of celebrity. He often is asked to play at events around Kentucky and sometimes outside the state. He played the 2000 and 2004 inaugural balls in Washington D.C. Also, he has traveled with the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau on outreach tours to promote local tourism.
During a recent trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the convention bureau hosted a Derby-themed dinner and breakfast. After Buttleman gave a presentation describing both his job and the spectacle that is the Kentucky Derby, one of the attendees came up to him and said, “You seem like a person who really enjoys his job.”
Buttleman couldn’t disagree.
“I guess I just feel real fortunate. It’s something I take very seriously. I’m not only representing a tremendous organization in Churchill Downs, I feel like I’m representing the city and state.”
And he plans to play that tune for as long as he can.
“As long as I can play well, I’ll keep doing it.”
Related Link
Brassapalooza aims to set record, raise money
