Marshall Cassidy, the voice of the New York Racing Association from 1979-1990, died in his sleep Sunday at his home in Saratoga. He was 75. Cassidy had a distinctive baritone voice and was known for being succinct and accurate in his calls. When a horse was coming to the wire with a clear advantage, Cassidy would follow the horse’s name with the simple phrase “in front.” One of his more popular calls came in the 1989 Belmont Stakes when Easy Goer stopped the Triple Crown bid of Sunday Silence. In midstretch, when Easy Goer assumed command, Cassidy said “Easy Goer gets clear by four, Sunday Silence remains in second.” Coming to the wire, Cassidy bellowed, “It’s New York’s Eeeeeasy Goer in front.” Cassidy hailed from a family involved in horse racing. His great-grandfather, Mars Cassidy, was a starter at tracks in the early 1900s. His grandfather, Marshall, was director of racing at NYRA and an executive director of the Jockey Club. His mother, Marselia, after divorcing Marshall’s father, married Frank Kilroe, a racing secretary in New York and then California. George Cassidy, a grand-uncle of Marshall’s, was a race-starter, mostly at NYRA, for five decades. According to a 1979 New York Times story, Cassidy was born in Glen Cove, N.Y., but went to high school in San Diego. He spent 3 1/2 years in the Air Force and then returned to New York in 1968 to study business at C.W. Post College. Married to his first wife Jeanne and with one child at the time, Cassidy needed work and found a job at NYRA. Among the jobs he did at NYRA were veterinarian’s assistant, entry clerk, and member of the press department. When Dave Johnson took over the announcing duties from Fred “Cappy” Capossela in 1972, Johnson suggested to management that they hire a backup. Johnson had taken a liking to Cassidy and taught him how to call races. Cassidy served as the backup to Johnson and then Chic Anderson before taking full-time duties upon Anderson’s death in 1979. “We worked together in that tiny announcer’s booth for five-plus years and we never had a cross word,” said Johnson, who still remained friends with Cassidy. “We were so good working together; he was such a great person to share my responsibilities with. He was just a great person, a great man, I deeply mourn him.” Tom Durkin took over from Cassidy following the Saratoga meet in 1990. “He had a voice that belongs in the baritone hall of fame,” Durkin said of Cassidy. “It was a classic baritone announcer’s voice, he had that resonant timbre. He was a no-nonsense race-caller; hyperbole did not exist in his race-calling world. The first dictate of any announcer is accuracy and he exceled there. If he said it in a race call, you could chisel it in stone. “His pronunciation, I don’t know of any announcer in any field - maybe with the exception of Fred Capossela - whose pronunciation was as clear, sharp and distinct as his,” Durkin added. Cassidy, in that 1979 Times story, discussed the importance of being articulate. “One has to be rather articulate to overcome the shortcomings of the sound system at the race track,” he said. “There’s a lot of steel and concrete, hence a lot of reverberation. The more clearly one speaks, the more clearly one is understood.” Durkin also remembered Cassidy as an “extremely kind and courteous” man. “He had courtesy that people just don’t possess these days,” Durkin said. “That was a byproduct of extraordinary consideration for other people. I never saw him walk through a door before anyone and when a lady walked into the room he stood up.” After leaving the announcer’s booth, Cassidy stayed at NYRA and worked in the program department. He was also a seasonal placing/patrol judge during the Saratoga meet. Glen Mathes, a former NYRA public relations director and a longtime friend of Cassidy’s, remembered Cassidy as “an excellent announcer” and a precise person in everything he did. Mathes said he remembers Cassidy helping him hang pictures in his Saratoga home. “You couldn’t have hung them any better or more precise,” Mathes said. “He was a terrific person and as good a friend as you could have.” There were no details on any services for Cassidy. He is survived by his second wife, Maryellen, two daughters, Christina and Cynthia, and a son, Marshall 3rd.