This year's Little Brown Jug was awesome. Maybe it's just 'cause I missed it for a few years, but this year's race seemed to have more excitement and intrigue than previous years. Or maybe it's 'cause this year's race did have more excitement and intrigue than previous year's. Art official goes whack job warming up and makes a break at the eighth, only to come back and still win, albeit 15 lengths slower than Lonestar Legend in his elim! 1:49.3 for a horse owned by a Clevelander, Bill Peshina, of North Royalton. And trained by former Northfield regular Don Swick! And those were the two "boring" heats. The opener, where I loved Giddyup Lucky and thought Shadow Play was an afterthought, saw my longshot break behind the gate, costing him the chance for the trip he needed. Then the winner injures a hoof and they do a mricale patch job as he comes back to win the final.

The best win of the day were Dennis in the Old Oaken Bucket, owned by Big Dee, Bob Slowey and Tony Minute. These are three of the real good guys in the business and they are all local. Tony runs our tack shop, Dennis Big Dee Osterholt used to and Bob has raced his single-named trotters here for a million years. Hard to believe a guy whose local trainer is Bill Putney has a Bucket champ who has made $250,000, and that he is of the same bloodlines as Stan adn Jack.

And how good was Show Me Big Slick in his first start for Kurt Sugg. Apparently Kurt, who is not much on touting horses, was telling anyone who would listen and some who wouldn't that this horse would win for fun. He did not tell me, as I used him underneath in my exactas. 12-1. Thanks Kurt. But seriously, congrats to Dean Davis of Wooster. He and Kurt are two more of the good guys and it is nice to see them come out on top.

I cashed a few tickets, ate too much food and only had one beer. And, I got to see my daughter for dinner. She is a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan and when some of her friends said they were cutting class to see what the Jug was all about, she told them that she attended her first jus when she was two and had been there abotu six times since and that she wasn't interested. Where did I go wrong?