The name Life Sign usually brings back memories of the 1993 Little Brown Jug for most people in harness racing, but the Hall of Famer was certainly more than his herculean effort at Delaware, Ohio.
Life Sign (Abercrombie - Three Diamonds) was bred by Brittany Farms of Versailles, Ky. and was foaled on April 30, 1990. He was owned throughout his career by George Segal.
The Little Brown Jug effort of Life Sign will be remembered by many as one of the most amazing performances in harness racing. It also marked the end of a long Jug drought for Hall of Fame trainer Gene Riegle.
"Gene really didn't have much luck with the Jug until Life Sign," announcer Roger Huston told Trot Insider in a recent interview. "He did alright in the Jugette but he was kind of stung on the Jug for so many years."
In 1991, Riegle had to scratch pacing colt Artsplace from the Little Brown Jug days before the event. One year later, it would appear that Western Hanover would be able to give the Ohio-based trainer that coveted Jug title. Ron Waples and Fake Left had other plans.
Coming into the 1993 Little Brown Jug, the dominant horses in the division were the Bill Robinson-trainer Presidential Ball and Riyadh. Presidential Ball had won the North America Cup and the Meadowlands Pace, while Riyadh trucked into Delaware having captured two legs of pacing's Triple Crown -- the Cane Pace at Yonkers Raceway and the Messenger at Rosecroft Raceway. Huston thought Riyadh had a strangehold on the division and would leave Delaware with the Little Brown Jug and Triple Crown.
"I have to admit, my favourite that year was Riyadh. I thought, at that time, that Riyadh was the best horse I'd seen on a racetrack."
Fans of harness racing would have to wait a few years for a Triple Crown winner. Life Sign emerged victorious after a race that driver John Campbell has stated on multiple occasions that wasn't one of his best tactical efforts.
Huston wondered if perhaps one change to the race could spelled disaster for Life Sign.
"Right off the top of my head, I don't think Life Sign would have won the race if Riyadh had gone right down the pike in the second heat. They went to the quarter in :27 and the second quarter was in :29. They got to the half in :56 so Life Sign being hung really wasn't that much of a problem because they weren't going that fast.
"If I recall correctly he was at the pylons for no more than five or seven seconds, if it was that much. He was hung and then he came in and he was right back out. The reason I think Campbell came back out, just trying to read his mind, was because they were going so slow. And he thought 'well, shoot, I'm not going to let him steal it!' so he came back out and kind of just sat there. He didn't force the issue or anything like that. I think the third quarter they paced something like :27.4, which was not all that fast either. And then when he asked the horse and Life Sign did come on, he won by about half a length over Riyadh...I really think if Riyadh and Morrill had gone right down the pike, Life Sign would have never won the race."
Here's the 1993 Little Brown Jug second heat, with hosts Earl Lennox, Frank Salive and Marty Adler
Huston was thrilled to finally interview his longtime friend Gene Riegle in the Delaware winner's circle after a Little Brown Jug victory. He was no stranger to winning races like the Jugette as the dam of Life Sign, the great Three Diamonds, won the filly companion race to the Jug in 1982. (Ironically, that was the year that filly sensation Fan Hanover opted to race against the boys and win an edition of the Little Brown Jug that was remembered for a number of different reasons.)
"Emotionally I was tickled pink to see Gene Riegle in the winner's circle. I remember the first time I ever met him at the Urbana Fair in Ohio, and I had dinner with him underneath the grandstand at a church area that served meals. The other thing that stood out over his career was at Hilliards, at a county fair close to Columbus. Gene came up to me and said 'can I wear your boots today?' I had the old Butler harness boot on, with the zipper in the front. I said 'yeah, why?' and he said 'I forgot my driving boots and left them at home in Greenville.' So we switched shoes and he wore my driving boots and I wore his dress shoes that afternoon. There aren't too many people that can say they've walked in Gene Riegle's shoes, but I did.
"We were just great friends throughout his career so I was more of a Gene Riegle fan than a Life Sign fan, and it meant a lot to me as I'd announced Gene from the early 1960s when I first started right up until he quit driving and continued on as a trainer."
In his Jug victory, Life Sign set three Standardbred world records for fastest first heat on a half-mile track (1:52, fastest mile in Jug history), second heat on a half-mile (1:52) and two-heat race on a half-mile (3:44), a record that would stand for nine years.
Racing against the likes of the aforementioned Presidential Ball and Riyadh as well as Village Jiffy, Native Born, Ready To Rumble, Lotta Soul, Beastmaster, Broadway Blue and Broadway Jate over the 1992 and 1993 seasons, Life Sign was campaigned by Riegle to a record of 18-10-5 in 35 starts. The pacer didn't miss the board as a three-year-old and only missed the board twice as a freshman, finishing fifth in both of those races, thus never missing a cheque in his career.
As a stallion, Life Sign has sired 490 in 1:55, 355 $100,000 winners and 123 $250,000 winners. His eight millionaires include 2002 Horse of the Year Real Desire, 1998 Meadowlands Pace winner Day In A Life, two-time American-National winner Peruvian Hanover, 2002 Pacing Classic winner Life Source, 1998 Two-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year in the U.S. and Canada Island Fantasy, longtime Open class performer Image Of Dawn, 2003 Two-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year in the U.S. and Canada I Am A Fool and 2002 Art Rooney winner Ashlees Big Guy.
Life Sign was inducted into the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2013. He passed away on August 14, 2014 at Australia's Morley Park Stud at the age of 24.