MONROE: Horse boarded in township wins Jug

By Natalia Knochowski, Staff Writer
   MONROE — Millstone’s Daniel Dube, a harness racing driver who keeps his horses at Monroe’s Congress Hill Farm, won the $604,100 Little Brown Jug on Sept. 23 in Delaware, Ohio, driving the 3-year-old colt stallion, Rock N Roll Heaven.
   According to Congress Hill Farm owner Sam Landy, harness racing is a type of racing where a horse pulls a two-wheeled cart in which the driver sits.
   And the Little Brown Jug race is basically “the Kentucky Derby of harness racing,” Mr. Landy said.
   A horse and driver must win two separate heats in order to win the entire competition.
   Mr. Dube, who originally is from Canada and has lived in Millstone for the past five years, said that during the race, he hoped “everything would go OK.”
   And it turned out, everything did go OK because not only did he win both heats and the entire race, but he and Rock N Roll Heaven also set a world record for fastest time at the Jug.
   According to the Paul Ramlow, Internet news manager for the U.S. Trotting Association, the record Mr. Dube and Rock N Roll Heaven set is 3:38.4 minutes for the total of both heats. They finished each heat in 1:49.2 minutes.
   Mr. Dube attributed his win to “luck” and Rock N Roll Heaven, which is owned by Frank J. Bellino, of New York, and trained by Bruce Saunders, of New Jersey.
   The prize money of the Little Brown Jug is split between the owner, trainer and driver, Mr. Landy said.
   Mr. Dube keeps and trains his own horses at Congress Hill Farm, a 200-acre standardbred racehorse breeding and training facility acquired by Mr. Landy’s family in 1986.
   The farm boards 110 horses, 75 percent of which are racing horses, and contains a “ˆ-mile riding track, indoor and outdoor riding arenas, 100 acres of trail and a horse swimming pool,” Mr. Landy’s wife, Laurie, said.
   In addition, Ms. Landy personally runs Special Strides, a nonprofit riding center and program that services and provides therapy to about 125 children with disabilities on a weekly basis.
   However, it is Mr. and Ms. Landy’s son, Harry, 18, who has a knack for harness racing and is mentored by Mr. Dube. The young Mr. Landy, who one day hopes to win the Little Brown Jug as well, even got the chance to go to the Little Brown Jug this year for the first time.
   Harry said he accompanied Mr. Dube and his family, along with others, in an RV to the Jug, and the event was “huge.”
   There were about 50,000 people there from the United States and Canada, he added.
   ”Dan’s been a mentor of mine since I’ve been 12,” Harry said. “I’ve followed him from track to track, but the Jug is the biggest experience.”