Sep 11, 2022 8 min read

At least publicly, Richard Stillings was not exactly optimistic about Jaguar Spur’s chances in the 1987 Little Brown Jug.

The Meadows-based 3-year-old pacer found himself in the same elimination with pre-race favorite Run The Table and other top contenders.

It prompted Stillings to say: “It doesn’t look good.”

Until it did.

Jaguar Spur dispatched Run The Table – who didn’t qualify for the final – and all others in that elimination race to earn a victory and a prime spot in the Little Brown Jug final.

Just a year earlier, Stillings trained while William O’Donnell drove Barberry Spur to Little Brown Jug glory.

Here, one year later, Stillings had steered Jaguar Spur to the precipice of another milestone victory, and his brother Buddy had trained the horse into the enviable position.

Jaguar Spur rebuffed the efforts of talented Frugal Gourmet and stormed his way down the stretch of the Delaware County Fairgrounds, Delaware, Ohio racetrack to win one of harness racing’s most cherished, significant and high-profile races.

The Little Brown Jug is a harness race for 3-year-old standardbred pacing horses hosted by the Delaware County Agricultural Society since 1946 at the Delaware County Fairgrounds racetrack in Delaware, Ohio. The race takes place every year on the third Thursday after Labor Day.

Along with the Hambletonian, a race for trotters.

It is one of the two most coveted races for standardbreds. The event is named after Little Brown Jug, a pacer, who won nine consecutive races and became a USTA Hall of Fame Immortal in 1975. The race is the counterpart to the Jugette for 3-year-old fillies.

The win was especially sweet for Richard “Dickie” Stillings and Buddy Stillings as they grew up in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, about 20 miles down the road.

After that race, Dickie Stillings said: “This win is side-by-side with the Adios,” referring to his 1986 winning drive of Barberry Spur at his home track.

It also made the late Roy Davis, along with Barberry Farms of Sewickley only the second owners to win consecutive Little Brown Jugs to that point.

Said Davis after Jaguar’s Spur’s win: “I really believed we’d win it. Down deep, I was more certain of this than the Adios. Dick said the horse trained well up here and things worked out.”

Weeks earlier, Jaguar Spur finished second to Run The Table and Hall of Fame driver John Campbell in The Adios.

But the Jug was Jaguar Spur’s race.

“He would do anything you’d ask him to do,” said Dickie Stillings, who will be inducted to the Little Brown Jug Wall of Fame.

“Jaguar would go anyway you wanted him to and put some kick behind it. He was an unbelievable horse.

“You never think you’re going to win those kinds of races. You like to think you will. The Jug is a race where you put it all on the line. Yes, it was special to win it. He was special to me. I had raced him in Europe. I had such a good time with him.”

None could have been better than the ’87 Little Brown Jug in front of 44,932 fans for a purse of $412,330.

Buddy Stillings explains it best.

“I trained Jaguar Spur on a Sunday,” Buddy Stillings said. “It was the first time on a half-mile track for him. I hooked him to the bike and took him around the track to see how he liked it.

“I told Dickie they (the field) couldn’t beat the horse (Jaguar Spur). He was that good right then.”

Roger That

The careers of Roger Huston and Dickie Stillings will forever be intertwined.

Two years before Jaguar Spur’s Little brown jug victory, Dickie Stillings drove Barberry Spur to victory in The Adios.

“It started the year before,” Huston said. “I was disappointed in 1986 that Dickie didn’t drive Barberry Spur in the Little Brown Jug. Dickie wanted O’Donnell to drive. But Dickie was really Barberry Spur’s driver and he knew him the best. For Dickie, being from Mt. Vernon, driving in the Jug would be extra special.”

“Jaguar Spur’s win was extra special for them,” Huston said. “They were hometown guys. I get a great feeling calling that race and when Dave Palone won the Adios. Those are Meadows guys and those were big wins and special moments.

“Everybody thought Run The Table would win the ‘Little Brown Jug. And Frugal Gourmet was the next in line. There was no emotion for Jaguar Spur going in because he was so soundly beaten – he was second – by Run The Table in the Adios. The normal fan was picking Run The Table and not expecting a turnaround. I picked Run The Table and Redskin to be second.”

Huston had been pushing for Dickie Stillings to be honored as a Jug Wall of Fame recipient in recent years. Finally, this year, he got the votes. That winning Jug drive cemented his place in the race’s history.

“We finally persuaded enough (voters) to bestow this honor on Dickie,” Huston said. “He so richly deserves this.”

Huston wanted to be the one to inform Stillings about the honor.

So he had Kim Hankins, executive director of the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association, summon Dickie Stillings to his office.

“Dickie had no idea,” Huston said. “I told him to come to the office. He had no idea until I told him about being honored with the Jug’s Wall of Fame. He sat there speechless. A slight tear came to his eye. This was one of his greatest moments. Being from Ohio, it probably means more to him than being in the Harness Hall of fame in Goshen, N.Y. That Wall of Fame means so much to a native Ohioan.”

Stillings will be honored the week of this year’s Jug, Sept. 18-22.

Chasing the Jug

Dickie and Buddy Stillings skipped school each year on Jug Day.

It was a ritual for the boys to join their dad in going to the big day of racing and the “special” race.

Their mother would kid them about not being able to skip school a particular year to go to Delaware.

“We’d go downstairs and the picnic basket was full of fried chicken, potato salad and baked beans for the day,” Buddy Stillings recalled.

At that point, being part of a victory in the Little Brown Jug was not even a thought.

“We never thought we’d be in the horse racing business in those days,” Buddy Stillings added. “We we’re fortunate and lucky.”

The Stillings’ earned their way to that winner’s circle.

Jaguar Spur, the son of the great Albatross, raced just once as a 2-year-old – a $300 qualifying test a The Meadows that earned him $150.

He was paired with Run The Table and Frugal Gourmet in a powerful first of three divisions. Jaguar Spur took command early and won by 1-1/4 length. Run The Table finished fourth, failing to make the final.

In the nine-horse final, Jaguar Spur got the rail in a draw with the other two division winners. Dickie Stillings took Jaguar Spur to the top and was in total command.

It was a command performance.

Announced Huston: “. . . into the turn, going to the 3/8, Jaguar Spur and Dick Stillings won’t give it up. . . three quarters 1:28.1 but Jaguar Spur has the lead. . . Less than 1/8th mile Jaguar Spur and Dick Stillings are motoring now. . . it’s going to be Jaguar Spur winning Little Brown Jug.”

Jaguar Spur won in 1.55.3 – 2-1/2 lengths ahead of Redskin – who was second behind Jaguar Spur in the first division that went in 1:54. Bomb Rickles was third.

“The way Dickie drove Jaguar Spur at the Jug, he deserved to win. He took the race to them and didn’t let anyone have a chance.

“It was just a perfect drive.”

The remaining order of finish was Z Twenty Eight (fourth), Happy Affair (fifth), Golden Greek (sixth), Shannon Supreme (seventh), Frugal Gourmet (eighth) and Landy Hanover (ninth).

“I felt all along it was my job to defeat Run the Table here,” Dick Stillings said. “We got ahead and Run The Table didn’t have the pace that race.

‘Those are the kind of races you dream about,” Dickie Stillings said. “Your friends, peers and family are watching near your childhood home.

“Finally, to do it for a special owner in Mr. Davis. He gave us anything we needed to be successful. Anything. All the time. He was a great own and a greater man.”

Buddy Stillings still lights up when talking about Jaguar Spur and the Jug victory.

“He wasn’t getting beat,” Buddy Stillings said. “I remember O’Donnell said to Dickie: “at least hit him (Jaguar Spur) this race” going into the final.

“Jaguar Spur was so good. He won a ton of races and he was as good as he had been going into the Little Brown Jug. You worked around his schedule. We’d go in at 6 (a.m.) and give him breakfast. Then he went in his stall and laid down until 9 or so. He was one of a kind.

“He was tremendous on the mile tracks and he was the greatest horse we ever had. He has all the credentials, a great horse. That Jug was a great day. I will never forget it and what it means.”