The late Roy D. Davis, owner of back-to-back Little Brown Jug champions, will be honoured as the 2016 Joseph Neville Memorial Award winner by the Delaware County Fair.
Davis was the founder of ‘Team Spur,’ which included Barberry Spur and Jaguar Spur, who won the 1986 and 1987 Little Brown Jug, respectively. During a five-year period in the 1980s, Davis won the $1.6 million Governor’s Cup final (Barberry Spur – 1985), a pair of Breeders Crown titles (Kentucky Spur – 1988 and Esquire Spur - 1989), the Adios Pace (Barberry Spur - 1986), the Cane Pace (Barberry Spur – 1986), the Yonkers Trot (Gunslinger Spur – 1986), the William Haughton Memorial Pace (Jaguar Spur – 1988) and the Tattersalls Pace (Jaguar Spur – 1987).
Davis was an active owner for more than six decades and had a longstanding relationship with trainer Dick Stillings. The ‘Spur’ suffix, inspired by an English soccer team, the Tottenham Hotspurs, also reflected Davis's Texas heritage.
He was a part of the ownership group of the Meadows Racetrack in the 1980s and established the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association. He was enshrined into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.
Davis was a longtime member of the Little Brown Jug and Hambletonian Societies and was a former director of the United States Trotting Association.
Davis died June 16, 2015 at the age of 85. He is survived by his sons; Roy Jr. and Richard.
(Little Brown Jug Society)