“I’m Gonna’ Miss Going To The ‘Jug’…Ohio’s Kentucky Derby Is Today

If you’ve never been to it, those who’ve made it a life’s pursuit say there’s nothing like the experience while it lasts.  And when the time comes when you can’t be there in person…some call Delaware’s Little Brown Jug week one of life’s best memories.

Delaware, Oh – It happens this week.  In fact, it’s happening now.

September 15th is the start of ‘Jug’ week in Ohio, culminating with the 80th running on Thursday (the 18th) of one of the Triple Crown races for the world’s best pacing Standardbreds, The Little Brown Jug.  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.

The remaining two races in the Triple Crown are the Cane Pace (Meadowlands, New Jersey), and The Messenger Stakes (Yonkers, New York).

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 ‘Jug’ week on their calendar.  There’s no work, no family (unless they like harness racing), no school, no Wednesday prayer meeting, nothing…not on ‘Jug’ week.  The grandstand is packed.  The pari-mutuel windows are packed.  The food lines are packed.  And the lines at the beer tent are packed.

There’s memories shared among friends…enough to account for 30 years of ‘Jug’ weeks.

There’s stories of horses, drivers, and trainers, past and present…enough to fill not just a book, but volumes.

And in the case of some who no longer make the annual pilgrimage, personally, there’s that sense of loss of something that meant so much – something you remember as part of your life.

“I went for 36 years, 36 Little Brown Jugs in a row,”  says 77-year-old former Shelby County resident, baseball coach, and NCAA umpire Steve Partington, now retired and living on Florida’s West Coast.

“And not just for the Little Brown Jug race, but the whole damn week,”  he laughs.  “Me and about twenty friends went every year – a few people from Sidney, but mostly guys from Troy.

“Now, I’m the only one left.  But back then we wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  It was right there with Ohio State football, the Reds, the Bengals, and the state high school basketball tournament.  I hate that those days are gone.”

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 ‘Jug’ is as big a deal as you can find in racing.

“It’s about the horses, the drivers, and people who grew up with a love of horses and racing,”  said Vic Morrison at the 2022 Little Brown Jug, from eastern Ohio and another small community, St. Clairsville.  “If you love horses, and the intimacy that comes with harness racing – if you love the relationships with drivers, trainers, and owners – you want to be at the ‘Jug’.  I’ve been coming since 1970, if that gives you an idea…for 52 years…and Stanley Dancer won that race with a horse named Most Happy Fella, and he won the Triple Crown for pacers that year.”

Pausing for a moment, Morrison added, “I was 18 years old back then, and my goal still is to come every year.  If that gives you some idea.”

Steve Partington’s story is not that different from Morrison’s.  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.

“Oh yeah,”  he laughs.  “I went to all of ’em…Sidney, Troy, Greenville, Urbana, Lancaster…and Greenville was the best of all of ’em for harness racing.  They had guys like Gene Riegle and David Miller racing, and later the Miami County track had Dave Bodemiller and Mike Polhamus.  And Polhamus and Dave Miller are still racing.

“The 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.  In the 90s Polhamus had a horse named Nardie Jeff and I saw him race a lot.  And back then they would run those horses all over the country, and got paid to travel with them and race.  That’s the thing about the Little Brown Jug…you’re getting to see the best horses in the world in that race –  horses you only get to see on television, except for the day the ‘Jug’ is run.”

That 2022 Little Brown Jug was won by a three-year-old named Bythemissal that won the race with a time of 1:51.1, driven by Chris Page, who grew up in Delaware, Ohio.  Page, one of the country’s top drivers, called the experience of winning a Triple Crown Race in his hometown, “A dream of a lifetime”.  Since 2022 Page has been featured twice in racing coverage on Press Pros.

“Winning the Little Brown Jug had been my dream ever since I was a little tyke,” said Page. “I 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.”

Bythemissal won nearly $250,000 that day, and since has gone on to career earnings of more than $2,500,000 million dollars.  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.

This year’s ‘Jug’ has attracted another stellar field of horses, topped by three-year-olds Louprint, and Prince Hal Hanover.

“I’ll watch it on television,”  says Partington, now living in North Port, Florida.  “But it won’t be the same.  I’m gonna’ miss going.  Hard to think about back then and all the fun we had at ‘Jug’ week.  And you know, all those horse, all those people – just regular people.”

Friends he met at the county fairs.

To Partington and Vic Morrison…better than the Kentucky Derby.