by Bob Heyden

Jiggy Jog S, Twin B Joe Fresh, and Jackie Ingrassia are ladies of distinction and all on stage — front and center — in 2024.

First, let’s take a look at the very first female 1-2 finish in Horse of the Year balloting, something we could very well be looking at again in 2024.

In 1958, the 81 voters coast-to-coast couldn’t separate 3YOFT Emilys Pride and 4YOMP Belle Acton who received 28 first place votes each. But the total vote count did (10-5-3-2-1) with Emilys Pride getting the top tally of 438-407. Flave Nipe drove the fastest ever sophomore trotting filly, Emilys Pride, in 1:58, for trainer Fred Egan as she also captured both the Hambletonian and the Kentucky Futurity. Billy Haughton came oh-so-close to his first ever HOY trophy with Belle Acton but he’d have to wait 19 more years for Green Speed in 1977. Haughton’s 4YO mare pacer would retire as the richest ever pacer the following year. Others receiving first place votes in this ladies only first ever 1-2 finish were Shadow Wave with 19 and 370 total votes; the ill-fated 2YOFT Merrie Annabelle fourth with one first-place vote and 129 points giving the female set three of the top four spots. Emilys Pride was owned by both Castleton and Walnut Hall Farms.

FAN OF FAN

In 1981 the first female pacer was named HOY: Fan Hanover. What a year! Fan Hanover gave her sire Albatross his third-straight HOY credit having won it back-to-back with Niatross in 1979-80. It was a wide-open year to say the least with a record 23 getting at least one vote for the top honor (Twenty-five got a vote for 3YOCT, also a record).

Owned by Dr. Glen Brown, Fan Hanover went 17-for-23 and banked $497,717, an all-time best for sophomore filly pacers. Not bad at all for a $20,000 yearling. None of the 248 ballots returned had the very same divisional winners! “Fan” got 135 of the 248 first place votes, with her Jug victory playing a huge role. She remains today as the only female to win the Jug (1981) and is the last female pacer to win any Pacing Triple Crown event. Glen Garnsey was her trainer/driver. Her caretaker Odell Short also had the 1978 HOY Abercrombie.

Forty-three years later, Twin B Joe Fresh hopes to duplicate this year end honor, a year older than Fan Hanover.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LADY J

Nov. 13 this year marked the 45th anniversary of the U.S. citizenship for one Jacqueline Ingrassia in 1979 in Freehold, NJ. She had been something of a fixture at Freehold for seven to eight years prior after coming over from England to start the 1970s. The former Jacqueline Coard married Frank Ingrassia and they are still going strong today. Jackie was the first female driver to win a race sub 1:55 with Followme Holly on July 25, 1986 at The Meadowlands in 1:54.4 and she was the fourth-place finisher in the $907,000 Woodrow Wilson with Southern Raider in 1989. No female driver on these shores has ever competed for as much in one race or cashed in one. Her 2000 Yonkers Trot win with Goalfish, still stands as the lone female driver Triple Crown race win.

When asked if she remembers the 1979 date when she officially became a citizen, she said, “When I went to the courthouse in Freehold to receive my citizenship, the judge beckoned me up to his desk. There were many people there that day and he’s calling on me. ‘Oh boy, what have I done now?’ That was my immediate thought. So, when he leaned towards me and said, ‘Got a winner?’ I was relieved. Turns out he was a big fan of Freehold Raceway.”

MORE BACK-TO-BACK

Speaking of outstanding ladies back-to-back or 1-2, the 1973 Liberty Bell yearling sale sold Hip #32 Meadow Blue Chip and Hip #33 Silk Stockings. Meadow Blue Chip, four years later, became the first sub 1:55 winner in Meadowlands history (1:54.3 in July 1977) and just two years later Silk Stockings took on the boys and romped in the sports richest race, the first edition of the OTB Classic. In 1975 she almost got a six-year jump on Fan Hanover as the first female pacing HOY just narrowly losing to Savoir 52-49.

Gear up folks as Twin B Joe Fresh and Jiggy Jog S will try and add their names to this legendary list of ladies.