by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehoold, NJ — It was a busy spring and summer for harness racing driver Dave Palone. First, the 47-year-old Pennsylvania native topped 13,000 lifetime wins. Then he was elected to the Harness Racing Hall of Fame. And last week, Palone and his wife Bethann welcomed their second daughter, Sophie Anne, to the family.

On Thursday afternoon, Palone will try to get autumn off to a good start by winning the $609,150 Little Brown Jug for 3-year-old pacers at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio. Palone won the Jug, one of harness racing’s most coveted prizes, in 2005 with P-Forty-Seven.

“Everything is going good,” said Palone, who ranks third in wins in North American harness racing history. “It’s been one thing after another. I was sitting in the rocking chair (Sunday) night rocking Sophie — she didn’t want to go to bed — and I was laughing to myself: You’re not supposed to be doing this at 47. I love kids. It’s been good. It’ll keep me young and racing longer, that’s all.”

Palone will drive Straight Shooting in the first opening-round heat of the Little Brown Jug and will drive Sheer Desire in the second opening-round division. The top four finishers from each heat will advance to the second round. A horse must win two heats to be declared the winner.

Dave Palone

“I like both my horses, but I think Sheer Desire is in a great spot,” Palone said. “If I can time it right, I know the horse is going to fire home for me. He’s going to need some luck, sure, but I like the scenario with three or four (other) guys racing aggressively. It almost sets up like when I won the Jug. I’m looking for the same type of deal.”

Sheer Desire was a world record holder as a 2-year-old and has won four consecutive races since recovering from a blood infection. He is in the same Jug heat with Well Said and Vintage Master — the sport’s highest rated 3-year-old male pacers in the current Top 10 poll. Well Said will start from the outside, post eight, while Vintage Master is in post four. Sheer Desire will start in the second tier, on the rail behind No. 1 Carnivore.

“You obviously want to be on the gate, but if there’s a horse in the Jug that could suit that spot, it’s him,” Palone said. “He’s a really nice horse as far as following. He’s battle tested and coming into the race really sharp.

“That race has to set up speedy,” he added. “Most of the time you look at a race and it never goes the way you look at it. But there is no way that race cannot set up speedy. No way. Unless (Well Said) is just going there for training, he has to go. (Vintage Master) has to go. It should set up perfectly for my horse.”

Over the last 15 years, horses racing at the Delaware County Fairgrounds have won at a six percent clip from post eight, which is the worst percentage at the half-mile track.

Also, since the last race-off in 2000, horses that have started from post No. 1 in the second heat have won seven of the last eight Little Brown Jugs.

“It (being inside) means so much because you’re into the first turn at Delaware faster than any racetrack,” Palone said. “It’s very easy to make a guy surrender because if you beat him to the turn he’s practically at your mercy. He has to back up to get behind you, or be parked. There aren’t too many Jug winners that have won from off the lead. You almost need the mindset that you’re going to go down swinging.”

Sheer Desire is trained by Ron Burke and owned by the Burke Racing Stable, Randy Ringer, JJK Stables, and Lawrence Karr.

“Some of my best friends in the sport own the horse,” said Palone. “It would mean a lot to win the race for them. Last time I won it for good friends, so maybe that’s the deal. It would be a lot of fun in Delaware on Thursday night.”