Driver Dan Noble drives to victory in the $40,000 Jim Buchy Trot at Thursday’s Darke County Fair. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Randy O’Dell and former Ohio state representative and racing fanatic Jim Buchy made their mark on this year’s racing tradition at the Darke County Fair…and plan on growing it even bigger.
Greenville, OH — What’s a guy gonna do?
His company, JAFE Decorating Inc. sponsored the second race Thursday night at the Great Darke County fairgrounds harness racing.
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The race was won by Sea Jazz in the $13,370 Dr. J.M. Parshall Futurity for 2-year-old fillies.
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Driver Ronnie Gillespie guided her wire-to-wire in 1:57.4 and pulled into the winner’s circle.
The presenter of the blanket was Randy O’Dell, who owns Sea Jazz, so he was in the rare role of presenting and accepting the blanket.
“I talked to a few people about winning the blanket in the second race (his race) because I thouight she would be pretty good today and she was,” he said.
In addition, O’Dell’s Lounado won the first race, a $24,000 pace for 2-year-old colts, driven by Austin Hanners in 1:57 flat.
O’Dell is a resident of nearby Arcanum and he smiled after going two-for-two to start the program when asked how many horses he has.
“My daughter and I counted them the other day and it was 13,” he said. “We had to write ‘em all down and I said I wasn’t sure I had ‘em all.”
“I’ve grown up loving racing. The family was involved with racing a little bit, and my passion for it started right here, racing at the [Darke County] Fair.” – Arcanum’s Randy O’Dell
“We’ve raised five boys,” he said. “I’m hoping to have a filly one of these years but so far we’ve just had five colts.
“I grew up loving racing, the family was in the business a little bit and I started going to the races here at the fair,” he said. “The passion started right here with racing at the fair.
“A lot of people I knew were involved in it, then I started going to Scioto Downs and I said, ‘Some day I hope to own horses,’ and I’ve been blessed to have ‘em now.”
Winning is a pleasant habit for Sea Jazz. The win at Darke County was her third straight, “And she won the Buckeye Stallion about 10 days ago up at Northfield. She’s getting better, she’s coming around.
“And Kayne Kauffman is training a 2-year-old colt we like, Passing Gear. He’s getting better every week, too,” he said. “Kayne has five horses for us, Ross Leonard over in Indiana has three, and Ryan Miller has three.”
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Kauffman, a patient and adept trainer, is an accomplished driver, too, as he showed it Thursday night by winning the $40,000 Gene Riegle Memorial in the seat behind Shamwow.
Gillespie steered home Lounado in the first race and O’Dell said, “Ronnie’s been driving for us a few times.We like to use Ronnie when we can. We clearly like Ronnie and he is a great guy.”
“I got hooked on racing when I was ten years old, 75 years ago,” says former state representative Jim Buchy. “Right here with my grandfather. I’ve only missed four years here since then. Racing is what started county fairs.”
In addition to being a pari-mutuel driver currently driving at Scioto, Gillespie is one of the top drivers on the Ohio fair circuit.
“We’re talking about buying a trotter together,” said O’Dell.
“We have a 2-year-old filly trotter that Kayne has that is doing pretty well in the Buckeye Stallion, second in points right now. She’s small, but gritty.”
O’Dell agrees that horses are like your children and said, “Yeah, they are. I lost one last year (Rockin Sandsave) and it was tough, it’s tough when you lose one. He’d become my little buddy in the barn. He got sick and we tried everything we could to save him but we couldn’t. He was a big horse but a gentle giant.
“And we lost one in a race last year, too, Bubble Trouble,” he added. “She broke a leg and we had to put her down.”
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O’Dell won the program’s first two races and he said, “That’s it, we’re done. No more horses entered.”
It was Ohio fair racing’s biggest night with three races paying a total of $110,000 in purses — the $30,000 John Robinson Memorial Pace, the $40,000 JIm Buchy Trot and the $40,000 Gene Riegle Pace.
Would there be Ohio harness racing without Jim Buchy? The former Ohio state representative talks horses with OHHA’s Frank Fraas at Thursday’s Great Darke County Fair.
And the name Jim Buchy should be put up in bright lights at the Darke County fairground track. It is because of him that the $110,000 in purses are available in three races.
Buchy, a long-time state representative, not only knows everybody there is to know in Darke County, but knows their children’s names and their dog’s name.
And that’s where the money materializes. After the races last week he said confidently, “Next year it’s going to be $50,000 for our two big races.”
If Buchy says so, it is going to happen.
The 86-year-Buchy is as much a part of the Great Darke County fairgrounds as the ancient grandstands. And he has been around longer.
“My grandfather got me hooked on the sport when I was 10-years-old,” he said. “This is the 75th year for racing here. I was at the first one when I was 12-years-old and right here with my grandfather.
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“I’ve only missed four of the 75 and that was when I lived in California and worked out there,” he said. “That’s where I met my wife and where our son was born.
He added a wife and a son and said, “It was a great move but I hated missing the races. County fairs started because Farmer Brown’s horse was faster than Farmer Jones’s. It was competition. And that’s what started county fairs.”
Most county fair events have not been drawing fans, nothing like the large turnout at Darke County.
“It’s because we have large purses,” said Buchy. “You get faster horses. With more money, it’s more competitive. When it’s more competitive, more people want to see it.”
When it was mentioned that he is the man who makes certain the purses at the Great Darke County Fair races are robust, he said modestly “Well, I had a little bit to do with it.”
A little bit? He has a little bit to do with it like the Wright Brother had a little bit to do with flying.
“Yeah, I raise the money for all three of the big races,” he said. “And next year there will be more. We’re gonna grow ‘em. The more we grow ‘em, the more people will come.
Happy moment for racing, and Buchy…Jim Buchy, with driver Dan Noble, poses in the winner’s circle following Thursday’s Jim Buchy Trot at the Darke County Fair.
Buchy spent 24 years in the Ohio House of Representatives and, he said, “I know a lot of people who are very nice and a lot of people who support this industry.”
Buchy said harness racing in Ohio was a billion-dollar piece of the economy in 2011 and today it is $3 billion, “And growing. We have 66 counties that race horses — no other state has that — and we have four of the best racetracks in the country.
“And we’re starting to produce more standardbred horses than any other state and the quality of the horses we’re producing is the best.”
Listening to the positivity that Buchy emotes makes one want to scramble into a sulky and go racing, even if you barely know which end of the horse crossing the finish line first.
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