When Clyde Perfect – who was 78 at the time – watched his cousin, trainer Ron Potter, win the Little Brown Jug with Big Bad John in 2011, he decided it was time to get involved in harness racing as a horse owner.
When Clyde Perfect watched his cousin, trainer Ron Potter, win the Little Brown Jug with Big Bad John in 2011, he decided it was time to get involved in harness racing as a horse owner. Perfect – who created the Perfect North Slopes ski area in southern Indiana nearly four decades ago and worked previously as a bricklayer, brick contractor, and farmer – was a mere 78 years young at the time.
“I’m just a rookie in the business,” the now 84-year-old Perfect said with a laugh. “When Ron won the Little Brown Jug, I thought, I ought to get one of them and let Ron train it. So that’s what I did.”
Perfect, who lives in Indiana, along the Ohio River west of Cincinnati, raced his first horse in 2013 and has enjoyed his share of success over the years, with 80 wins and nearly $1.25 million in purses. Male pacer Ollie Pop won a division of the Ohio Breeders Championship and finished third in the Ohio Sire Stakes final as a two-year-old in 2014 and filly pacer Pearl Crush won an Ohio Breeders Championship at age two in 2017.
And then there is Zoe Ellasen, named after two of Perfect’s great-granddaughters. The four-year-old female pacer has won 13 of 41 races and earned $245,465 heading into Friday’s $25,000 Fillies & Mares Open Handicap at Miami Valley Raceway. She is 9-2 on the morning line, with Tyler Smith driving for Perfect and trainer Potter.
Perfect purchased Zoe Ellasen for $9,500 under the name Evil Woman at the 2015 Ohio Selected Jug Sale. She is a daughter of Santanna Blue Chip out of Spring Delight, who is a full sister to multiple-stakes-winner Bettors Edge.
“She was raised by a guy I kind of knew and I didn’t think she was all that expensive, so why not,” Perfect said about buying Zoe Ellasen. “She’s done real well. She’s the best one I’ve had. As long as she keeps doing [well] we’ll keep going and seeing what she can do.
“Maybe someday she will be a nice broodmare for somebody,” he continued, adding with a laugh, “That’s like buying green bananas, those broodmares.”
Zoe Ellasen’s career wins include multiple divisions of the Ohio Sire Stakes series. She was third in the championship as a two-year-old and fourth last season at three. She finished third in last year’s Circle City, which was won by Agent Q, and she competed in the Jugette, finishing fifth in her elimination and missing a trip to the final by a quarter-length.
Several races earlier on the Jugette card, Pearl Crush had won her division of the Ohio Breeders Championship.
“That was really great,” Perfect said. “When I’m feeling low, I go back and watch the replay.”
Of course, the Jugette is held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio, which is also home to the Little Brown Jug. Perfect was no stranger to the Jug prior to Big Bad John’s win in 2011, but Big Bad John’s victory was not surprisingly the most impactful.
“A lot of guys race all their lives and never get in that winner’s circle,” Perfect said. “I had family ties to the sport, but just never got involved until then. We had Quarter Horses when my kids were young. Not racing Quarter Horses, just pleasure Quarter Horses. I wish I’d gotten involved a little earlier, but it was tough with getting the ski area going and running that.”
Perfect expects to have 10 to 12 horses, mostly Ohio-bred, in action this year.
“I just enjoy watching the horses race,” he said. “It’s been fun and exciting.”
(USTA)