by Jay Wolf, Little Brown Jug publicity director

Delaware, OH — Roy D. Davis, owner of back-to-back Little BrownJug champions, will be honored as the 2016 Joseph Neville Memorial Award winnerby the Delaware County Fair.

USTA Photo

Dick Stillings and Roy D. Davis.

Mr. Davis was the founder of “Team Spur,” which included BarberrySpur and Jaguar Spur, who won the 1986 and 1987 Little Brown Jug, respectively.During a five year period in the 1980’s, Mr. Davis won the $1.3 million Governor’sCup Final (Barberry Spur – 1985), a pair of Breeders Crown titles (KentuckySpur – 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 theTattersalls Pace (Jaguar Spur – 1987).

Mr. Davis was an active owner for more than six decades and had alongstanding relationship with trainer Dick Stillings. The “Spur”suffix, inspired by an English soccer team, the Tottenham Hotspurs, alsoreflected Mr. Davis’s Texas heritage.

He was a part of the ownership group of the Meadows Racetrack inthe 1980s and established the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association. He wasenshrined into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.

Mr. Davis was a longtime member of the Little Brown Jug andHambletonian Societies and a former director of the United States TrottingAssociation.

Mr. Davis died June 16, 2015 at the age of 85. He is survived by hissons; Roy, Jr. and Richard.