Remembering Tell All’s 2007 Jug Victory

More than 100 years ago, pacing horses were often referred to as “side-wheelers” in harness racing contests.

One horse that epitomized that term more than many has to be Little Brown Jug winner Tell All.   The son of Real Desire was often seen with his head cranked around to the outside, and photos taken of him, especially on a half-mile raceway, show him looking almost awkward.

However, that didn’t stop him from winning the 2007 edition of the Jug for driver Jody Jamieson and trainer Blair Burgess.

“He’s always going sideways,” Jamieson told this writer at the time. “He does it, he lives with it; he never hits anywhere either. He just paces effortlessly despite the way he travels.”

Tell All was an anomaly. He only raced that one season, winning the $1.41 million North America Cup at Mohawk before capturing that 62nd Little Brown Jug that year when it carried a purse of $480,000.

Unraced at two, Tell All had sold for $30,000 at the 2005 Lexington Select Yearling Sale under the moniker “Pete Die.”  He began his 3-year-old campaign with a winning 2:00 qualifier at Mohawk in rein to Jamieson on Jan. 19, 2007. He followed that up a week later with another winning effort, this time pacing in 1:59.3.

“I told Blair (trainer Burgess) that we were going to win the North America Cup and he thought I was nuts,” Jamieson said. “Imagine if I had said we’d win the Jug too!”

Tell All’s first pari-mutuel triumph came two months later, in his fourth lifetime start, when he won a $17,400 leg of the Youthful Series at Woodbine in 1:53.2. He was third in the $52,624 final but then rattled off a trio of victories, capturing the $69,300 Diplomat final in 1:52.4.  After next finishing third in the $94,000 Burlington at Mohawk, he captured his $47,000 North America Cup elim handily in 1:50.4 on June 9, before snaring the $1,410,000 Final on June 16 in a snappy 1:50.3.

Tell All next finished fifth to rival Always A Virgin (Western Ideal) in his Meadowlands Pace elimination on July 7, clocked in 1:50.3, and was only a length and a half back to the winning Southwind Lynx (Real Artist) in the $1 million final a week later, this time pacing in 1:49.2 for Jamieson.

He was then third in the $121,000 Oliver Wendel Holmes to Southwind Lynx, timed in 1:48.4, before winning a $20,000 Kentucky Sires Stakes at The Red Mile in 1:50.4, by 9¼ lengths. His final start prior to the Jug saw him score a 1:50.4 victory in the $125,965 Simcoe at Mohawk on Sept. 8.

“I wanted to make the (Jug) final and have a good post in it,” Jamieson remarked at the time. “Once I got on the racetrack for the final, I was confident. Tell All has a great big heart and he’s so aggressive and never stops.”

In the $76,800 Jug elim on that humid-filled afternoon at Delaware, Tell All left from post three but could not outsprint Southwind Lynx to the top, and endured a brutal, first over trip, pacing through panels of :26, :54.1, and 1:22, before posting a :28.1 final brush to score the win in 1:50.3 as the 1-9 favorite.

In the $326,400 final Tell All (2-1) grabbed the lead at the start from the rail slot and never looked back, cruising handily through panels of :27, :56.2, and 1:24.4, before sprinting home in :27.1, holding off the hard-trying 13-1 Hot Rod Mindale (Real Artist) and driver David Miller by half a length in 1:52.  Always A Virgin (Western Ideal) was third at 3-5 for Brian Sears, with Won The West fourth with Greg Grismore up, and Southwind Lynx, who broke stride early from post four, was fifth for Tim Tetrick.

To watch Tell All win the final heat of the Little Brown Jug, click here.

Tell All followed up his Jug triumph with a 1:48.3 career best victory in the $195,000 Tattersalls at Lexington two weeks later and was third in the $104,000 Gold Cup at Woodbine on Oct.27.  After a brief rest, he qualified at Mohawk in 1:55.2, before winning his $25,000 Breeders Cup Elim on Nov. 17 in 1:50.4 by a head over Watta Hot Shot. Sadly, he finished a disappointing eight in the $555,000 final, and his racing career was over.  But the burly, side-wheeling stallion had earned $1,509,227, and quickly earned his place in the breeding shed, shuttling back and forth between the United States and Australia.

Bred by Brittany Farms LLC, Tell All had all the credentials to be a good racehorse, despite his relatively low sales price as a yearling. His sire, Real Desire, was a $3,159,814-earning world champion with a record of p, 4, 1:48.2, and had Meadow Skipper blood running rampant on both sides of his pedigree.

His dam, Have No Secrets p, 3, 1:51 ($238,641), was a solid race mare and a daughter of Albatross (Meadow Skipper), out of a Jate Lobell mare, whose lineage included a healthy mix of Good Time genes on both sides of pedigree. Tell All was her second of 14 foals and the most prolific, with Alwaystellthetruth (by Tellitlikeitis) p, 4, 1:49.4s ($274,289), being her other top earner.

Now 19, Tell All stands at Tourello Standardsbreds in Tasmania, for a fee of A$2,750.

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink