Jug settles on new voice

Roger Huston passes Jug/Jugette mic to Jason Settlemoir.

by Debbie Little

Jason Settlemoir’s dream came true on Thursday (Sept. 18) in Delaware, OH, as he called his first Little Brown Jug after his mentor, Roger Huston, literally handed over the mic. The day before, Settlemoir called his first Jugette after Huston graciously relinquished the honor to his protegee.

HRU caught up with Settlemoir as he drove to his mother’s home in Ohio after calling the Jugette.

“I tell people all the time, I live by what Walt Disney said, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it,’ and I’m evidence of that,” said Settlemoir, a native of Newark, OH. “The sport of harness racing has meant so much to me my entire life, and the Delaware County Fairgrounds has been so much to me my entire life, and I got to thinking about it today that I haven’t missed a Jug since 1988, BJ Scoot… and to do this today and to know what’s coming [Thursday] with the Jug, it’s surreal.”

Settlemoir, 48, is the chief operating officer/general manager of The Meadowlands and has been Huston’s assistant announcer at the Jug since 2012.

“I thought about it in terms of baseball, I thought about it like somebody trying to fill the shoes of Babe Ruth,” Settlemoir said. “So, that’s kind of how I feel about Roger from an announcing standpoint.

“One of the things I want to make clear is that Roger’s not retiring, and Roger sounds as strong [on the mic] as I’ve ever heard him the last couple of days. From everything that he’s told me and I’ve read, he wanted to give me an opportunity.”

Huston is known as the “Voice of the Little Brown Jug,” because he had continuously called the race for 3-year-old male pacers since 1968, and, until Wednesday, was the only person to call the Jugette for sophomore pacing fillies since its inception in 1971. This year marked the 55th edition of the Jugette and 80th edition of the Jug.

According to Huston, the decision not to call this year’s Jug and Jugette wasn’t that hard to make.

“I started thinking about it two years ago and I told Tom Wright [president of the Little Brown Jug Society] that I was thinking about continuing to announce the races, but let Jason call the Jugette and the Jug,” Huston said. “And I think it was January of this year that I told Tom Wright that I had made the decision that I was not going to call the Jug and the Jugette this year.”

Several connected to the Jug hoped to change Huston’s mind.

“Wendy Ross tried to talk me out of doing it, because she wanted to make it a grand thing, that this is going to be Roger’s last call for the Little Brown Jug, and I couldn’t take that pressure,” he said. “I didn’t want that pressure on me. And I wanted to make the call after I’d made my last call.

“My favorite song in life has always been My Way by Frank Sinatra, so, when it came to this decision, I wanted to do it my way, and that’s the way I’ve done it.”

Huston broke the news to Settlemoir in Orlando, FL, on Dan Patch Awards Weekend.

“I was surprised, and it was emotional for me,” Settlemoir said. “It’s kind of two parts, because one, Roger, has been such a great influence on my life, and to see him stepping away, as far as calling those races, from what he loves, just reminded me that we’re all getting older, and that time doesn’t slow down for anybody. But the second part of why it was emotional for me is because I always thought that [the late] Sam [McKee] would be the one to call the Jug next, and, ultimately, he should have been, and should be. At the end of the day, though, yes, it was very emotional for me, and I even told Roger I wasn’t doing it, and he said, ‘Well, I don’t know who we’re going to get, because I want you to do it.’ So, I said, ‘Okay.’”

HRU was also informed of this situation on Dan Patch Weekend, but was sworn to secrecy until now.

In a conversation with Huston last week, he was confident in his decision, but fully expected he might get a little emotional on Jugette and Jug Day.

“When they parade to the post for the Jugette, I’ll probably question, did I make the right call, and when they post parade for the Jug, I’ll probably say the same thing to myself,” Huston said. “But I can say right now, even though I may have funny feelings come Sept. 18 [Jug Day], I know I’ve made the right decision, but it will be hard. And I think that’s one of the reasons that I had to make the call so far in advance. When you’ve done something for 57 years, how do you go cold turkey? I’m not really going cold turkey, but a lot of people, they don’t connect anything with Delaware except the Jug and the Jugette. They think those are the two, and that’s all there is in Delaware. Well, there’s a lot more to Delaware than just those two races, and that’s one of the reasons I’m going to continue with calling races.

“I think the greatest compliments you can have is somebody that’s racing a horse, the little guy that’s racing a horse at Delaware, that wants me to call their race and I’m still going to be able to do that. I mean, I got a driver right now that wants his 2,000th win at Delaware, because he wants me to call it.”

Through Wednesday, Huston has called a total of 184,691 races at 164 different tracks. The Hall of Famer, who turned 83 on Tuesday (Sept. 16), said people have been asking him when he was going to start backing off, but in typical Huston fashion, he’s doing it his way.

“Maybe some people would have cut back on the number of county fairs,” Huston said. “I do 17 of them, Ohio, Virginia and New York, and I have not cut back in any way on that. And theoretically, at Delaware, I’m not cutting back. I’ll still announce Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, it’s just that I’m not going to call the Jugette and the Jug anymore, and I’ll be back again next year doing the same thing, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, most of the races, and Wednesday and Thursday. But I won’t call the Jugette or the Jug next year either. I mean, it’s just my way of cutting back.

“Nobody has called a major race for 57 years, thoroughbred, harness, you name it. And I knew it had to end sometime. I mean, I couldn’t go on forever, and I wanted to end it the way I wanted to end it, and with the pressure that it has, I want to continue to announce races, but I don’t want the pressure anymore.”

When contacted after the Jugette card was over, Huston said, “Today was easy, tomorrow will be tough.”

It was no surprise that Settlemoir sounded a little emotional after the first of his two big days.

“When Roger stepped off of the mic after the 17th race, we embraced each other; that was a little tough for me,” Settlemoir said, adding with a laugh, “The first elimination my heart was just pounding out of my chest, and the second one was much easier on my heart, and the final was even easier on my heart. It was just getting through the jitters of the first elimination, and it was a surreal feeling. I think the first elimination today of the Jugette was as nervous as I think I have ever been calling a horse race, except for the first time I ever called a race in 1989 at the Hartford Independent Fair in my home county of Licking County at the age of 12.

“I’m probably going to get emotional, but there are not too many people in life that get to do what they love. And I feel sometimes like I’ve been living the dream my entire life. I’m a very fortunate person to have the people around me that I have around me… I can’t even put it into words.”

When it was pointed out to Settlemoir that there were moments when he was on the mic that he sounded like a younger version of Huston, he said, “People say that. They say you have different lingo than Roger, but your cadence is a lot the same. That comes simply from listening to him from a very young age and trying to emulate him.

“And this is what kind of a man Roger is, after I got done with the Jugette today, I went to run down the stairs to do the interview in the winner’s circle, and he was standing at the end of the stairs, and was the first one to greet me, and he stuck his hand out, shook my hand, and he said, ‘Fine job, young man, fine job.’”

Settlemoir said there are many people to thank for helping to make his dream come true.

“I owe everything to my mom and my dad for taking me to the races,” Settlemoir said. “Terry Holton, Jerry Knappenberger, Phil Terry, Jeff Gural, Tom Wright, and Roger, obviously, and just so many people that I can’t even name them all, but they’ve just always been so supportive of me and me chasing my dreams.”

He also said that his first Jugette call was a little more special because the race was won by “The Buckeye,” driver David Miller.

“David obviously has been one of my favorite drivers my entire life growing up watching him at Scioto and Lebanon Raceway and to have David win the first Jugette I call is kind of amazing, too. So, like I said, it doesn’t get much better than this for a guy from Ohio that loves the sport of harness racing and does what I do.”