The Jug… before it was the Jug!

The french fries are long and skinny…and hang over the side of the cup.

Some people put vinegar on ‘em, but there’s always a full saltshaker and ketchup on the counter if you prefer.

Usually, that’s the first place I stop when I get to the harness racing fairgrounds for the Little Brown Jug.

It’s part of the ongoing history of our grand sport and traces its roots back to the days of innocence that has mostly disappeared today…mostly.

Jug week blends the greatest three-year-old pacers in the sport with the home-grown Ohioans with an ambiance that is unmatched in all of sport.

The roster of winners includes some of the greatest that have ever seen the track, you know, the ones that aren’t afraid of spoiling their image by racing on a track that’s a half mile around with a stretch that’s not too much further than 100 yards.

The history of The Little Brown Jug includes great horses like Ensign Hanover, Forbes Chief, Knight Dream, Good Time and the free-legged Dudley Hanover, winner of the first five Jugs, to Tar Heel, Adios Butler, Bullet Hanover, Henry T. Adios and Bret Hanover, to name a handful more.

Hard to believe that we’re coming up to 50 years—a half century—since the grand and game Seatrain, who raced until he was 43 years old—that’s human years, of course.

One memorable Jug was Happy Escort, who won in 1978 when “Showbiz” caught them all flat-footed very early in the final race off heat from the outside three post and went on to win!

Add Niatross, the great filly Fan Hanover, Nihilator, Rock N Roll Heaven (breaking the 1:50 barrier), Wiggle It JIggleit and, of course, all the others, and you’ve got some history there.

And let’s not forget the characters that roamed the track recording its history…like the fans that came to the track a few weeks in advance to reserve their seats by chaining their own lawn chairs to the fence surrounding the track…like George Smallsreed, with his famous hats with those feathers sticking up recording the history in pictures of this great event …and, of course Roger Huston, the voice of the Little Brown Jug forever.

I remember my first Jug way back when…

“Pacers arall…in…behind the Bud…Jenne…starting gate…around…the upper,,,turn…

“The gate swings into the strETCH…and heeeeere they come…”

This wasn’t a stake race or anything…but Roger made EVERY race a stakes race with excitement…

“They’re off and pacing BECCA STAR goes for the lead…that’s Easy…Guy…between horses,,,Tip Star third A-yit the rail…and there goes SuSE upawn the outside fourth…naow third…naow second and going up…”

With a quarter in :29 seconds, 40,000 fans and 80,000 eyes were intently watching the action as Roger continues…

“That’s Easy GUY upawn the outside to tAAAke command at the half in :58…three—FEEifths.

“Around the turn and heading to the backside,,,that’s Easy…Guy…withthe lead…Suse raceen second…Becca Star upawn the out-side third, naow second and goin’ after the leader at the three-quarters….mark. Three-quarters…1:27…two…FEEifths.”

When all is said and done, Huston brings the winner back to the winner’s circle for the brief champion it is…especially for the fans that have a $2 bill on the winner’s nose.

Yes, it’s a unique and magical day for the sport and, to think, it all started back in 1937 when the Delaware County Agricultural Society members voted to move the County Fair to Delaware on land at the edge of the city.

A couple of years later, a half mile track was built by a local contractor, R.K. McNamara, who designed and built the half-mile oval.

Two—actually three—people played the key role in getting the Little Brown Jug started.

Joe Neville, Hank Thomson and Thurman Wayne Smart, who, of course, was known as Curly.

In early 1940, the Delaware County Fair, only, itself, a two-year-old, had been invited to put some finishing touches on the year-old racetrack and join harness racing’s prestigious road show—The Grand Circuit.

But there were skeptics.

Those nay-sayers had cautioned that the track couldn’t possibly be ready for this prestigious show since there was not one single building on the grounds when the first fair was held in 1938.

Neville was an attorney whose family had interest in the standardbred sport for many years,—hence the Grand Circuit invitation—while Thomson was an editor for the Delaware (Ohio) Gazette.

“I guess there’s only one thing to do with the offer and that’s turn it down and hope we get it again later,” he told Thomson and other business leaders.

The Grand Circuit folk told Neville they’d make an official announcement if they didn’t hear from him in 24 hours and Neville said, “I’ll send the telegram this afternoon.”

Two days later,  while Thomson was in his Gazette offices, a bulletin came over the Associated Press saying that Delaware, Ohio had been awarded Grand Circuit dates.

Thomson called Neville immediately in disbelief and Neville replied, “Oh my heavens,” I plumb forgot to send that telegram.”

Neville was concerned by the emphasis on trotters and the Little Brown Jug Society was formed to stage a pacing event for the Grand Circuit meeting.

Joe Neville headed the LBJ Society and Thomson was its Secretary-Treasurer with the name of the new stake race coming from a newspaper contest held.

Major Landing Parsons suggested the name Little Brown Jug, honoring one of the great horses in the sport’s grand history of 50 years past. Parsons won the contest which had over 4,000 entries.

Many years later, and 10 years after Neville’s death in 1960, Thomson was still wondering whether Neville REALLY forgot to send the telegram.

“He remembered, “Joe was really a gambler at heart and, if he believed in something, he was a bull in a China shop.

“The very first year we had a couple of $2,000 stakes. It was unheard of then at a normal fair to offer more than $400 or $500 for such events.

History, of course, will record that one of the most famous telegrams in all of sports was the one that was never sent! Yes, this communications breakdown began the foaling of the Little Brown Jug.

Just a few blocks away from the now famed Delaware, Ohio Fairgrounds—219 Fountain Street to be precise—lived a gentleman by the name of Thurman Wayne Smart, known throughout the years as “Curly.”

And with time needed to nominate yearlings for the 1946 three-year-olds for the first Little Brown Jug, the track hosted Little Brown Jug Previews in 1944 and 1945, each with a purse of a $10,000—said to be the richest purses in the world for three-year-old pacers.

Thomson lamented, “That was Joe Neville in action again, taking a chance.

“And then he pulled me aside and told me I was the new Race Secretary. I didn’t know a thing about horses…and Joe knew it.

“Years later, I finally asked him why, seriously, he had given me such a high title. He just chuckled all down through his 350 pounds and said, ‘I figured that way we’d get all the publicity we needed from the Delaware Gazette.’”

That first Jug Preview in 1944 went to Eddie Havens, driven by Curly Smart in straight heats of 2:03 1/2 and 2:03.

And just who was the owner of Eddie Havens?

It was none other than Joe Neville, who accepted the trophy from his uncle, Jim Neville, the horseman that got his nephew interested in the standardized horse in the first place.

The 1945 Jug Preview was won by True Chief, driven by Sep Palin, who won the Hambletonian one decade before with the immortal Greyhound.

Curly Smart won two of the first seven Little Brown Jugs and could drive a tractor, too, as he orchestrated Delaware, Ohio’s half mile track to be one of the fastest in the world, especially in 1965!

Yes, the Little Brown Jug is a classic event with expensive wardrobes intermingled with bib overalls and fans perched on barn roofs, trees, machinery, ladders and bales of hay.

And to think…the french fries are long and skinny and hang over the edge of the cup.

Some people put vinegar on ‘em…but there’s always a full saltshaker and ketchup on the counter if you prefer.

by John Berry, for Harnesslink