Delaware
Day At The ‘Jug’ Big-Time Fun In Sleepy Delaware – Press Pros Magazine
“You wish to race on the Little Brown Jug as an proprietor. You wish to race right here as a coach. You wish to have your horse entered right here. There’s one thing historic, and particular, concerning the Delaware County Honest.” (Press Execs Characteristic Pictures)
First-time-in-a-long-time journey to the Little Brown Jug revealed lots of people I didn’t assume I’d see, and inside perspective of one of many world’s best-kept secrets and techniques in big-time horse racing.
But, attempt to casually drive into the Delaware County Fairgrounds this week with out ready in line…attempt to discover parking handy to the grandstand…attempt to elbow your self via the crowds to a vacant seat, and also you rapidly notice you’re within the midst of a really large sporting occasion.
“One of many greatest on the earth of harness racing,” buddy Frank Fraas, a public relations coordinator for the Ohio Harness Horseman’s Affiliation. “The Little Brown Jug is the third jewel of pacing’s Triple Crown. Delaware is the granddaddy of the county gala’s in Ohio. We race in 65 county gala’s throughout the state, and we nonetheless have 4 to go [this year], however that is the one individuals all the time placed on their calendar.
The title ‘Little Brown Jug’ was borrowed from an iconic Tennessee pacing horse of the identical title from the nineteenth century.
“You wish to race on the Little Brown Jug as an proprietor. You wish to race right here as a coach. You wish to have your horse entered right here. There’s one thing historic, and particular, concerning the Delaware County Honest.”
The Hambletonian is larger, older, and doubtless higher identified. Held presently on the Meadowlands Race Observe, in New Jersey, The Hambletonian first ran in 1926 on the New York State Honest, in Syracuse. A part of what’s often called the ‘Trotters Triple Crown’, it’s the primary of three races for 3-year-olds – the Hambletonian, the Kentucky Furity, and the Yonkers Trot.
What they race for…the Little Brown Jug was created to showcase the ‘pacer’ line of standardbred racing.
“The Hambletonian was a race for trotters,” provides Fraas. “However a man right here in Delaware County named Harry Neville was involved about recognition for the pacing horses, so in 1946 he and Hank Thomson, the sports activities editor of The Delaware Gazette, campaigned for this race to showcase the pacers.”
It discovered a following, and a spot among the many high occasions within the Standardbred style of horse racing, ultimately turning into the anchor leg of the pacing Triple Crown in 1956 – the Cane Tempo (Meadowlands Race Observe), The Messenger Stakes (Yonkers Raceway), and the Little Brown Jug (Delware).
The title Little Brown Jug was borrowed from an iconic Tennessee pacing horse of the identical title from the nineteenth century, important sufficient to the game of racing to be portrayed in a number of Currier & Ives lithographs (see picture, at proper).
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It had been years – many years – since I first attended the Little Brown Jug sequence on the Delaware County Honest, someday within the mid 80’s. A giant deal then, it’s nonetheless an enormous deal amongst racing lovers, some who declare they haven’t missed one in fifty years.
“I’ve been coming since 1974…missed one yr throughout that point,” stated a person from Pennsylvania. 48 years!
In contrast to greater venues on the Meadowlands and New York Metropolis, it’s cozy, reflecting Ohio’s county honest tradition. Delaware, by comparability, is just like the village of Sleepy Hole, within the well-known story of Ichabod Crane, along with his headless horseman.
“It’s nothing like New Jersey or New York. Folks have been sitting of their chairs by 7:30 this morning, ready for this to start out.” – Frank Fraas, Publicity Coordinator, Ohio Harness Horseman’s Affiliation
“It’s nothing like New Jersey or New York,” says Fraas. “However I bought to the monitor this morning at 7 am and by 7:15 individuals have been pulling coolers down the backstretch. They have been sitting of their chairs by 7:30, ready for this to start out.
“Folks will put their chairs up on the fences subsequent week, in order that they have their spot marked for subsequent yr. And one other factor about this place…you may deliver your personal beer. You possibly can’t deliver it into the grandstand, however you may deliver your personal beer. There’s events all over the place, and when the Little Brown Jug goes off (the climactic finale race) the roar you hear from the group in the present day goes to be unbelievable.”
It was an unbelievable roar, as driver Chris Web page, from Delaware, steered a three-year-old named Bythemissal to victory on Thursday to say the $641,550 purse within the Little Brown Jug last. Web page, simply 38 years outdated, referred to as it, “The icing on the cake of my profession.”
Bythemissal grew to become simply the second Ohio-bred pacer to win the race in its 77-year historical past. Coach Ron Burke received his fourth ‘Jug’, simply the third to have educated not less than 4 winners of the race, becoming a member of Corridor of Fame names, Stanley Dancer (with 4), and Billy Haughton (with six).
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