The Little Brown Jug

When residents start chaining lawn chairs to the fence around the horse track at the Delaware County (Ohio) Fairgrounds, it’s a sure sign that one of America’s oldest and most beloved harness races is just a few months away.

The race, known for more than 50 years as the Little Brown Jug, draws more than 55,000 spectators from around the world, so people without a reserved seat in the grandstands chain a lawn chair to the track fence—sometimes months ahead—as a sort of seat-saver for race day at the county fair.

“On race day, they usually bring newer chairs and throw those hanging by the chains in the dumpster,” chuckles Bill Lowe, former fair manager who helped coordinate the race for 18 years. “It’s amazing that nobody messes with those chairs. They respect the system.”

Harness racing evolved in the United States in the early 1800s from impromptu horse and buggy sprints on country roads or city streets. The initial Little Brown Jug race in 1946 was the brainchild of two Delaware men who liked pacing horses—which move both legs on one side of the body at the same time—and thought the race would be a bonus for the Delaware County Fair. The name for the race was picked in a contest with an astounding 4,000 entries. It seemed fitting since the name Little Brown Jug had belonged to a Civil War-era champion pacer.

“I think it’s sort of a throwback to the way things used to be,” Lowe says of the race. “You just don’t expect to find a major sporting event like this at such a small county fair in such a little town.”

Today, the Jug, as the race is commonly called, awards an annual purse of $600,000 to drivers of the 3-year-old pacers pulling their two-wheeled sulkies. For people in the harness racing business, the Little Brown Jug is the place to be on the third Thursday of September. The Jug is the oldest race—and the middle jewel—in the Pacing Triple Crown. The crown’s first leg, the Cane Pace, is run in Freehold, N.J., and the third—the Messenger Stake—is held at The Meadows in Meadow Lands, Pa.

“Once it’s in your blood, you’re hooked,” says Joanne Young of Goshen, N.Y. “I grew up in harness racing. To me, it’s the All-American sport.”

Today, the Jug is the highlight of a weeklong festival featuring daily harness races, the musical roar of midway rides, and the spicy sweet aroma of funnel cakes. At the Farm Bureau tent, youngsters try to guess how many wheat seeds are in a jar to win $25. Their mental math is drowned out by the gobbling of a turkey in a nearby pen.

Keeping an eye on the race while he spreads shredded pork on a big bun, Tom Wagner says his family enjoys the action while making some money. “This is our family recipe here,” says Wagner, 72, from nearby Edison, Ohio. “We raised the hogs on the same farm where six generations have lived. All our meat is fresh from our farm.”

Watching all the hullabaloo, Warren Bale allows that the fair is one of the biggest deals of the year. “There aren’t as many farms or farmers as there used to be, and this shows you what it is like,” the 77-year-old Delaware farmer says. “Some kids have never seen an animal up close like this.”

Slipping the harness off a horse, groomer Bud Wilton of Nova Scotia, Canada, says the Jug is a favorite with racers even if they don’t take home any prize money. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Wilton says. “It’s nice when you win, but everybody can’t win. So we always look forward to next year.”

Jackie Sheckler Finch is a freelance writer living in Bloomington, Ind.

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