by Jay Wolf, assistant publicity director, The Little Brown Jug

Delaware, OH — A pair of the nation’s top reinsmen have been added to the second elimination in Thursday’s $609,150 Little Brown Jug.

John Campbell will drive Born To Rockn Roll (Post five). Campbell owns three Jug titles and is the second winningest driver at the Delaware County Fair. Tim Tetrick will pilot Nob Hill High (Post six). Tetrick has won more than 500 races and $11 million in 2009.

Small but powerful Winbak field

Mister Big, winner of more than $3.8 million, leads a small but fast field of four in Thursday’s $50,300 Winbak Farm Pace.

Mister Big and driver Brian Sears will leave from post three. The 6-year-old son of Grinfromeartoear is trained by Virgil Morgan, Jr. for owner Joseph Muscara. Mister Big won the 2008 edition of the Winbak Pace in 1:51 and took his lifetime mark of 1:47.4 in 2007.

Just to the outside of Mister Big will be Won The West and David Miller. Won The West won the $500,000 Breeders Crown Pace on August 22 in 1:47. The 9-year-old Western Hanover gelding is owned by the Strollin Stable, William J. Robinson and James C. Koehler.

Booze Cruzin (Sam Widger) and Atochia (Dave Palone) will leave from the rail and post two, respectively.

The all-age track record is 1:49 set by Jet Laag in 1999.

Ms. Versatility final set

Buck I St Pat, the reigning Ohio Horse of the Year, leads a field of seven in Thursday’s $111,000 Ms. Versatility Final.

Buck I St Pat comes into the final as the series’ top point earner and has career earnings of $1.3 million. The 6-year-old Jailhouse Jesse mare will leave from post three and will be reined by Tim Tetrick.

Buck I St Pat’s chief competition should come from Lavec Dream and Classic Lane.

Lavec Dream owns a career mark of 1:52.3 and has earned $929,094 for owner/trainer Peter Kleinhans. Lavec Dream has post five and the services of Yannick Gingras.

Classic Lane has six wins in 18 seasonal starts and a mark of 1:52. The Lindy Lane mare will be driven by Hall of Famer Michel Lachance.

The Ms. Versatility Final brings the top point earners from three preliminary legs held at the Meadowlands (a mile track), Tioga Downs (a five-eighths-mile track) and Vernon Downs (a seven-eighths-mile track).

“In its short history the Ms. Versatility has proven to be a solid test for an older trotting mare’s ability on all size tracks,” noted Jason Settlemoir, Vice President of Racing and Simulcasting at Tioga and Vernon Downs, co-sponsors of the series.

The Ms. Versatility Final is sponsored by Jeff Gural’s Allerage Farm.

Master’s Sweetie wins Signature Series Final in Tuesday action at Delaware

Master’s Sweetie sat patiently and watched Quickmaster (Dan Noble) and This Sands Hot (John Konesky III) battle through the first three-quarters of the mile and scored a two length victory over Sam’s Charmer (Ron Steck) in 2:00 to capture the $5,000 Signature Series Trot Final.

The 4-year-old Master Lavec mare is owned and trained by Edward Birmele. With the victory, Master’s Sweetie scored for the 13th time in 2009.

George’s Vacation (Mike McCarthy) rounded out the trifecta and This Sands Hot faded to fourth.

New Century Series divisions also held

Also in action on Tuesday were two divisions of the 2–year-old trotting filly, 3-year-old pacing filly and 2-year-old colt pace in the New Century Series.

In the freshman filly trot, CC Dancer and Greg Bateson took the first and fastest division in 2:03. Hat and Dan Noble took the second $5,925 division in 2:03.3 over I Look Dynamic (Don Pfister).

Lavish Liz and Sam “Chip” Noble remained hot as they took the first division of the sophomore filly pace in 1:54.1. Lavish Liz won by 25 lengths and has now finished in the top three in all 16 of her seasonal starts. Dan Noble completed the “Noble Family Double” as he guided Cruise On By to victory in the second division in 1:58.

The final New Century Series events were for freshman colt pacers. Bongo went a gutsy wire-to-wire mile to score in 1:55.3 over Look Yankee (Russell Swartz) in the first division. Matt Kakaley guided the son of Dawn Ofa New Day for Daniel Stone and Jerry Shaffer.

In the second $6,075 division, Trev Adams Attack wore down the pacesetting Feel The Love (Chip Noble) to score in 1:57.3. Matt Kakaley drove the son of On The Attack.