{"id":426957,"date":"2025-09-15T18:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/426957\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T18:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:57:20","slug":"im-gonna-miss-going-to-the-jug-ohios-kentucky-derby-is-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/426957\/","title":{"rendered":"“I’m Gonna’ Miss Going To The ‘Jug’…Ohio’s Kentucky Derby Is On Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The final turn of the Little Brown Jug\u2026one of the Triple Crown races for three-year-old pacers in harness racing.\u00a0 It\u2019s held yearly at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, in Delaware, Ohio.\u00a0 (Press Pros Photos)<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve never been to it, those who\u2019ve made it a life\u2019s pursuit say there\u2019s nothing like the experience while it lasts.\u00a0 And when the time comes when you can\u2019t be there in person\u2026some call Delaware\u2019s Little Brown Jug week one of life\u2019s best memories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Delaware, Oh \u2013<\/strong> It happens this week.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s happening now.<\/p>\n

September 15th is the start of \u2018Jug\u2019 week in Ohio, culminating with the 80th running on Thursday (the 18th) of one of the Triple Crown races for the world\u2019s best pacing Standardbreds, The Little Brown Jug.\u00a0 40,000 people will jam the Delaware County Fairgrounds, the traditional host track for the race, a mob proportional, but not unlike, to what the Kentucky Derby attracts on the first Saturday of May.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The remaining two races in the Triple Crown are the Cane Pace (Meadowlands, New Jersey), and The Messenger Stakes (Yonkers, New York).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I made my first trip in 2022, fascinated by the lore of the race, and stories of past horses, drivers, and so many people that for years have marked off \u2018Jug\u2019 week on their calendar.\u00a0 There\u2019s no work, no family (unless they like harness racing), no school, no Wednesday prayer meeting, nothing\u2026not on \u2018Jug\u2019 week.\u00a0 The grandstand is packed.\u00a0 The pari-mutuel windows are packed.\u00a0 The food lines are packed.\u00a0 And the lines at the beer tent are packed.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s memories shared among friends\u2026enough to account for 30 years of \u2018Jug\u2019 weeks.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s stories of horses, drivers, and trainers, past and present\u2026enough to fill not just a book, but volumes.<\/p>\n

And in the case of some who no longer make the annual pilgrimage, personally, there\u2019s that sense of loss of something that meant so much \u2013 something you remember as part of your life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went for 36 years, 36 Little Brown Jugs in a row,\u201d\u00a0 says 77-year-old former Shelby County resident, baseball coach, and NCAA umpire Steve Partington, now retired and living on Florida\u2019s West Coast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI went [to the \u2018Jug\u2019] for 36 years in a row.\u00a0 And not just for the Little Brown Jug, but the whole damn week.\u201d\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 Steve Partington<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd not just for the Little Brown Jug race, but the whole damn week,\u201d\u00a0 he laughs.\u00a0 \u201cMe and about twenty friends went every year \u2013 a few people from Sidney, but mostly guys from Troy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I\u2019m the only one left.\u00a0 But back then we wouldn\u2019t have missed it for the world.\u00a0 It was right there with Ohio State football, the Reds, the Bengals, and the state high school basketball tournament.\u00a0 I hate that those days are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

40,000 people is nothing compared to the crowd that Churchill Downs attracts, or that of the Indianapolis 500, but proportionately, in the tiny village of Delaware, and at a county fair venue, the \u2018Jug\u2019 is as big a deal as you can find in racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the horses, the drivers, and people who grew up with a love of horses and racing,\u201d\u00a0 said Vic Morrison at the 2022 Little Brown Jug, from eastern Ohio and another small community, St. Clairsville.\u00a0 \u201cIf you love horses, and the intimacy that comes with harness racing \u2013 if you love the relationships with drivers, trainers, and owners \u2013 you want to be at the \u2018Jug\u2019.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been coming since 1970, if that gives you an idea\u2026for 52 years\u2026and Stanley Dancer<\/strong> won that race with a horse named Most Happy Fella<\/strong>, and he won the Triple Crown for pacers that year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pausing for a moment, Morrison added, \u201cI was 18 years old back then, and my goal is to come every year.\u00a0 If that gives you some idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Partington\u2019s story is not that different from Morrison\u2019s.\u00a0 Raised in Shelby County, Ohio, he grew up going to the county fairs, to which harness racing and the Little Brown Jug ultimately owes its roots.<\/p>\n

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

Logan Services, in Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus, proudly sponsors the best area sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah,\u201d\u00a0 he laughs.\u00a0 \u201cI went to them all\u2026Sidney, Troy, Greenville, Urbana, Lancaster\u2026and Greenville was the best of all of \u2019em for harness racing.\u00a0 They had guys like Gene Riegle and David Miller racing, and later the Miami County track had Dave Bodemiller and Mike Polhamus.\u00a0 And Polhamus and Dave Miller are still racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about harness racing was getting to know the people, because some of those guys had big-time horses and you could just walk into the barn and talk racing with them.\u00a0 In the 90s Polhamus had a horse named Nardie Jeff and I saw him race a lot.\u00a0 And back then they would run those horses all over the country, and got paid to travel with them and race.\u00a0 That\u2019s the thing about the Little Brown Jug\u2026you\u2019re getting to see the best horses in the world in that race \u2013\u00a0 horses you only get to see on television, except for the day the \u2018Jug\u2019 is run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to all of them [the fairs) for racing\u2026Sidney, Troy, Urbana, Lancaster, and Greenville.\u00a0 Greenville was always the best.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That 2022 Little Brown Jug was won by a three-year-old named Bythemissal<\/strong> won the race with a time of 1:51.1, driven by Chris Page, who grew up in Delaware, Ohio.\u00a0 Page, one of the country\u2019s top drivers, called the experience of winning a Triple Crown Race in his hometown, \u201cA dream of a lifetime\u201d.\u00a0 Since 2022 Page has been featured twice in racing coverage on Press Pros.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Little Brown Jug had been my dream ever since I was a little tyke,\u201d said Page. \u201cI felt like somebody ought to pinch me, like I was going to wake up sometime. That [race] is what really pulled me into racing and made me want to drive horses and fall in love with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What they race for\u2026plus a whole lot of money.<\/p>\n

Bythemissal won nearly $250,000 that day, and since has gone on to career earnings of more than $2,500,000 million dollars.\u00a0 And this past June the gelding ran a time of 1:47.1 at Scioto Downs, thirteen seconds better than the once-held standard of 2:00 to pace the mile course.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s \u2018Jug\u2019 has attracted another stellar field of horses, topped by three-year-olds Louprint, and Prince Hal Hanover.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll watch it on television,\u201d\u00a0 says Partington, now living in Northport, Florida.\u00a0 \u201cBut it won\u2019t be the same.\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna\u2019 miss not going.\u00a0 Hard to think about back then and all the fun we had at \u2018Jug\u2019 week.\u00a0 And you know, all those horse, and all those people \u2013 they were just regular people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends he met at the county fairs.<\/p>\n

To Partington and Vic Morrison\u2026better than the Kentucky Derby.<\/p>\n

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

The Dave Arbogast family of dealerships proudly sponsors OHHA harness racing on Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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