When I tell someone from Toronto that I live in Cambridge, they wonder how I could possibly make it ALL THAT WAY into Mississauga, to the office. It’s actually only a 30 minute drive I tell them?? They think that Cambridge borders on Thunder Bay it seems.
When I tell someone from somewhere like Europe - where everywhere else is relatively close - that I drive to Lexington annually for work (an eight hour drive, for me, each way), they look at me like I’m utterly insane. Haha. But it’s barely more than one tank of gas each way I reply??
Hell, when our family cat had to be put down I drove to Ottawa and back on a dime to bring my son home so he could see her again and be there with her. What’s a measly 10 hours behind the wheel when compared to 17 years of her love and loyalty?
So when the Little Brown Jug comes along, raises their total purse to $1 million to try and help ensure a great field and a huge crowd, and is a mere five hours-plus drive away (according to the GPS), why wouldn’t I go? Especially since I’m one of the people always complaining that we don’t get enough people to the track anymore.
Sure, TROT is always, and should always be represented at the Jug anyway - and we are. We already had hundreds of copies of our September issue being handed out around the facility on both Jugette and Jug days. But we do like to be there in-person some years as well, and it had been a few, thanks in-part to Covid.
The timing wasn’t great for us work-wise, with the print date of our October issue - this issue - looming. But I can work from anywhere and it’s not like we wouldn’t be working the entire weekend of September 23-24 anyway.
My Associate Editor, John Rallis, had never been to the Jug, and my son, Justin Fisher, had only been once. We’ve all been through a few years of Covid-boredom as well, and sometimes you need to be reminded to seize the moment and not save all of the good things for later.
Plus, if there’s two younger people in the world (both are 27-years-old) that are bigger fans, and know more about harness racing than John and Justin, I’ve never met them. These are the people - our future - that need to be at races like this.
So, at 4:30am on Jug Day the three of us were up, and at 5:10am we were on our way.
It was very refreshing to see the Little Brown Jug back to a place where I’ve seen it in the past. I’m not going to lie to you (I never do) - the last few Jugs that I went to, pre-Covid, weren’t exactly bursting at the seams in terms of their usual attendance.
This year we were told that there were in excess of 40,000 fans at the race, and this year that was true. What an incredible atmosphere!
We also got very lucky in terms of how the eliminations/heats played out, in that two of the best horses got beat and finished second - causing them to draw from posts 4-5-6 in the final rather than posts 1-2-3.
There’s no simple answer, and there may be no cure-all, but this year’s Jugette showed us all the problems caused in the excitement-arena when the best two horses win their heats, draw 1-2 in the final, and the field lines up in program order (yawn).
But on Jug Day I told everyone who asked my opinion, why the final was going to be great: ‘The best two horses drew posts 4-5… now we have a race’ I said multiple times. Too bad I was too stupid to bet an Exactor box with those two horses (Its My Show and Seven Colors) because the $2 Ex actually came back at $60??
Myself - even though I spent half the day answering emails - and my two traveling companions had an excellent day. I’m so glad we went.
We visited with our friends connected to Redwood Hanover, Seven Colors and Its My Show, in the Jug Barn for an hour or so afterwards, and we were still home by 2am.
The people at the Little Brown Jug should be complimented on putting on a wonderful event, and I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t plug the Canadians - Scott Zeron, Richard Young, Bob & Al McIntosh, Marv Chantler, Brad McNinch, Yannick Gingras & Andrew Harris - that all had Jug elimination wins and/or top-two finishes in the final.
The moral of the story? Why is this my topic this month?
We really only have the Jug (at approx 40,000) and the Hambo (at approx 20,000) that draw a crowd comparable to what you might see at an average MLB or NHL game. Don’t take them for granted. Support them. Help grow them and our other big events as well if possible. Even these classic events might not be around forever if we don’t.
The REAL moral of the story though? Don’t believe the title of this column - it’s a lie. Haha. That’s just what the GPS said. We made it down there in four hours and 45 minutes. I’ve never met a GPS that I couldn’t embarrass, and Scotty Z is lucky that I’m a 240 pound former football and hockey player that they’ll let train, but not drive, because if I could drive horses like I drove to the Jug, he might be out of a job!
Dan Fisher [email protected]