Thursday was wet and dreary, yet thousands of people spent their afternoon at the horse track inside the Delaware County Fairgrounds to watch one of the premier events for harness racing – the 64th running of the Little Brown Jug. Admittedly, I don’t follow horse racing of any type, but I’m told that the Jug is one of the biggest events in the sport.
You hear crazy stories about the infield at the Kentucky Derby. Since there is no infield at the fairgrounds, spectators do their partying and betting all the way around the track on the outside. The rain, however, dampened the party considerably this year. Many of the spectators didn’t even bother to stick around for race 18 to see which horse and driver would claim the jug trophy.
Those who did stick around were treated to a dominant performance by Ron Pierce driving Well Said. The duo easily won their preliminary race and then held off Tim Tetrick driving If I Can Dream to claim the top prize.
At the end of the day, I was muddy and soaked, but I was able to put together a decent collection of images. One photo I didn’t take was of the drunk lady who felt it was necessary to show me her water-logged butt cheeks, proof she had sat down in a wet chair. There are some things we see as photographers that are better off undocumented. In fact, I’d be better off if there were some things I could un-see.
