{"id":236550,"date":"2025-07-04T04:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T04:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236550\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T04:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T04:56:14","slug":"mccoy-gillespie-an-outstanding-fair-harness-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236550\/","title":{"rendered":"McCoy: Gillespie An Outstanding ‘Fair’ Harness Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Greenville\u2019s Ronnie Gillespie (above) breaks the county fair habit to race Thursday night at Scioto Downs, in Columbus. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie McMaken Wright)<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was 16 when he bought his first horse for $500, and sold it a month later for $20,000\u2026proving that Greenville\u2019s Ronnie Gillespie was cut out for the harness racing game, and closing in on a thousand wins as one of the state\u2019s favorite \u2018fair\u2019 drivers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Columbus, OH\u2014<\/strong> A county fair features cotton candy, corn on the cob, FFA livestock shows, live singing, amusement rides\u2026and harness racing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hall of famer Hal McCoy writes UD Flyer basketball exclusively for Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Ohio\u2019s fairs move from county to county during the summer, up and coming sulky stars follow the calendar. and fans follow the horses and their drivers.<\/p>\n

And some super star trainer\/drivers like Ronnie Gillespie, a Greenville resident who looks as if he would be more comfortable behind a microphone on a county fair stage than behind 1,200 pounds of horse flesh.<\/p>\n

Fair goers and race competitors are not fooled. Gillespie is a fan favorite and some follow him from fair to fair to watch him win.<\/p>\n

Win? That\u2019s Gillespie\u2019s middle and last name. He has ridden behind a starting gate 4,466 times and was first across the line 979 times, closing in on the coveted 1,000 wins.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he won 128 races and $686,880, all from a humble beginning in Macon, Mississippi, which not only doesn\u2019t have a stoplight, it doesn\u2019t have a stop sign.<\/p>\n

Gillespie was a mere 16 when he bought his first horse for $500, trained it for 30 days, then sold it for $25,000 That\u2019s when horse blood began coursing through his veins. It led to him winning the overall Ohio state fair all-around championship two years in a row, appearing in more than 100 races and won close to 40.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson Health proudly sponsors your favorite area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fair racing came easy for the amiable Mississippian.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom where I was from in the deep south, I started out in county fairs,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you make your rules as you go because at the end of the day you have a lot of inexperienced drivers on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is who can outsmart who,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s basically how I became successful at the fairs. I learned the game real quick and what it took to do it. Not that I call myself smart, but I knew I was out there with a lot of younger guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always dealt with older guys and they always told me what you have to do,\u201d he added. \u201cFortunately I had the gift to do it and got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed he did, from the right end of a horse.<\/p>\n

In 2023 he won a career-best $781,931 both at the fairs and at big-name tracks like Scioto Downs, Miami Valley and Dayton Raceway.<\/p>\n

But he has a special affinity for the fairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more entertaining,\u201d he said. \u201cYou got people who come to the big tracks because it\u2019s a higher level, but fans come to the fairs to enjoy seeing you drive and you get to meet the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where Gillespie is a shining star, where fans want to talk to him, get his autograph and pose with him for photographs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got more fans at the fairs and that makes me feel good,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget my first fair when I was back at home. A guy from Indiana would take a vacation, like in July, and come to Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time, this kid walked up to me and said, \u2018Sir, can I have your autograph?\u2019 I\u2019m not more than 22 or 23 at the time myself and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Who\u2019s he talkin\u2019 to?\u2019 I didn\u2019t consider myself nobody.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHow I became successful at the fairs\u2026I learned the game real quick and what it took to do it. Not that I call myself smart, but I knew I was out there with a lot of younger guys.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018You talkin\u2019 to me?\u2019 And he said, \u201cYeah, I want your autograph,\u2019 and he was dead serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

A star was in the embryonic stage and that Indiana man is fully grown and still shows up a fair where Gillespie, now a youngish-looking 53 circles the tracks, usually in front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I like about the fairs. . .the fans. They take it seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And the beginning of his love affair with the equine set?<\/p>\n

Being from the deep south, and the most remote part of the deep south, Gillespie said he was in the country where animals outnumber people by about 100 to 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad happened to take me to a little small race one day and I just fell in love with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when he bought his first horse for $500. He saw the horse standing in a pasture and told the owner he was looking for a standardbred. He asked how much Gillespie had and he said, \u201cI ain\u2019t got no money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man said he\u2019d let him have it for $500, \u201cAnd my dad bought it for me. I was about 16 years old. I didn\u2019t even know how to read a stop watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when it became evident he was a horse whisperer with a knack for training them. He took the horse home for 30 days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ohio Harness Horseman\u2019s Association is a sponsor of standardbred racing on Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy came by looking to buy the best horses in our area,\u201d said Gillespie. \u201cI wasn\u2019t lookin\u2019 to sell it. I was just happy to have a horse. I sold him for $25,000. Here I was a 16-year-old kid selling a horse for $25,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

He celebrated by buying a big car and put a big stereo system in it, \u201cAnd my dad said, \u2018Hey, don\u2019t spend it. You gotta invest your money.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What Gillespie did was invest his money and his time on the world of horse flesh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did that multiple times,\u201d he said. \u201cI would go buy a horse for $500 or $600, train it, then sell it for big money.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on the track?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He hails from humble beginnings \u2013 Macon, Mississippi \u2013 and two years ago he earned $789,000, proving Ronnie Gillespie is one of the best at getting the best out of a standardbred.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe horse that made me famous was a horse by the name of Bo\u2019s Sahbra,\u201d he said. \u201cMy dad and a friend went to an auction where they sold cows. He was the only horse in the sale. I didn\u2019t even go with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad bought the horse because it was a standardbred and he was a mean horse, too,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf you walked toward his stall he would charge you, want to eat you up. I trained him and made him famous, what I call famous, carrying him around to matinees.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, Gillespie didn\u2019t know anything about parimutuel tracks because there weren\u2019t any around Macon. He just drove the fair tracks until a man spotted his talent and said, \u201cYou better get you a parimutuel license.\u201d He didn\u2019t know a license to race was needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Paducah Downs in Kentucky to get my license. They told me I had to qualify in four or five races.<\/p>\n

Qualify?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave me my license and believe it or not I won the driving title there that first year,\u201d he said. \u201cI just went there to get my license and drive some horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, right. And a star was born, a star who said his most memorable race was driving Sugar Instead to the 2023 2-Year-Old Filly Trot Ohio Sires Stakes Scarlet Championship.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s championship is a lot of words for a little guy with a heart as big as a horse\u2019s, and most comfortable at a county fair track.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have youtruck,and we have it in stock. Call us today\u2026937-335-0068.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greenville\u2019s Ronnie Gillespie (above) breaks the county fair habit to race Thursday night at Scioto Downs, in Columbus.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-236550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114793191224433927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}