Forty-three years after vowing to one day win the Grand Circuit race at the Indiana State Fair, Andy Willinger was emotional after This Jk Rocks narrowly won the 98^th edition.

by James Platz

Andy Willinger arrived at the Indiana State Fair in the summer of 1981 to campaign a pacing filly with his parents. He left that day aspiring to one day win the coveted Fox Stake. Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 7), 43 years removed from his first trip to Indianapolis, Willinger finally checked off that bucket list item when freshman This Jk Rocks narrowly won the 98th edition of the featured Grand Circuit race with a 1:52.2 effort.

“It was emotional as I walked out there,” said Willinger, who owns This Jk Rocks in partnership with Doug Overhiser and Engel Stable of Il LLC. “I finally won the doggone thing. I wouldn’t have thought that 43 years later I would get to live my dream.”

Back in 1981, Willinger got his first taste of the Grand Circuit when his family journeyed from the Bluegrass of Kentucky to the Circle City as part of the ownership group behind young pacer Sconce. She would become a world champion at 2 and 3, racing second to the great Three Diamonds in the Jugette. On Fox day, however, she didn’t fare as well over the Indiana State Fairgrounds strip.

“It had rained so hard that morning that they scraped the track. She led to three quarters and her feet just got to stinging and she backed up through the field,” said Willinger, a resident of Louisville, KY. “We hung around and watched the Fox. It was such a cool race. Back then, the purse was $160,000, $170,000. I was a 21-year-old kid. I said, ‘Man, this is cool. This is like the Kentucky Derby, but for harness horses.’”

That day, the Fox Stake speed record was set twice. Temujin, driven by Clarence Martin, Sr., covered the mile in 1:54.4 to secure the first heat. That mark was lowered in the second heat by Icarus Lobell, who triumphed in 1:54.2. While Temujin broke stride in the second heat, he recovered to finish fourth to claim the overall prize as Icarus Lobell also broke stride in the first heat and finished last.

By his own admission, Willinger assumed he would have achieved the goal of winning the Fox Stake sooner. But the concentration of his racing interests didn’t always align with that objective. At one point, he focused more on buying fillies and racing them, emphasizing their residual value as broodmares when leaving the track. Within the last decade, he has also placed a higher priority on investing in the Indiana program. Trainer Erv Miller has increased his presence in the Hoosier State, and the long-time owner has followed suit. He likes the proximity and the convenience of being close enough to watch trackside as his horses race at the fair or Harrah’s Hoosier Park.

“It’s only been recently we’ve started buying more Indiana yearlings. Over the years we didn’t race there. The Fox was out of the picture,” Willinger said. “Being from Louisville, I like to watch my horses race, and I like to watch them live.”

The Miller Stable’s Indiana string train over the fairgrounds oval, and it played to their advantage Wednesday. Miller-trained trotters and pacers won five of the 11 Grand Circuit events. Willinger was a partner on three winners, and he owned pieces of 11 different entrants. In previous years, he has had no more than four entries on the Fox Stake program.

“It was a really good day,” Willinger said. “They all, for the most part, raced well.”

High Speed Swan was the first to put Willinger in the winner’s circle. The Swan For All—Aunt Susie gelding captured the $22,141 Hoosier Stake division for 2-year-old trotting colts by 4¼ lengths. Steered by Mike Oosting, the freshman stopped the clock in 1:58.2. Owned by Willinger, Anthony Lombardi and Engel Stable of Il LLC and bred by Victory Hill Farm, High Speed Swan is now two-for-two in 2024.

“In Florida, we knew he had some speed, but he needs to grow up,” Willinger said. “If you look at him, you can tell he’s got some filling out and growing to do. I think he’ll be a better 3-year-old than he is a 2-year-old. Mike just came on and he trotted strong through the lane. He’s going to be a factor the rest of the year, I think, in the sires stakes.”

Jada Caroline nearly added another win, coming a head short to stablemate Plays In The Shade in the $29,836 Horseman Stake for sophomore pacing fillies. Two races later, Skyway Masterpiece took control after the quarter and never looked back, claiming the $27,022 Horseman division for 3-year-old pacing colts in a time of 1:54. The gelded son of Tellitlikeitis was bred by Kenny Slabach and is owned by Overhiser, Engel Stable of Il LLC and Willinger, this time racing under the banner of the Lava Java Stable.

“He wasn’t mature enough to even think about racing in the Fox last season,” Willinger said. “We left him in the Indiana Sires Stakes eligible races. He did win in [1]:49.4, so he has ability. He’s just knocking at the door of being a competitive sires stakes horse.”

While not a winner, Willinger was most impressed by the effort of freshman Ponda Rocky. The Pastor Stephen colt is a brother to Indiana Sires Stakes champion Ponda Adventure. While still racing, Ponda Adventure has earned $765,921 and holds the 2-year-old and 3-year-old trotting speed records at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Ponda Rocky finished third Wednesday in the Ralph Wilfong Memorial, circling the oval in 1:59.1.

“He had a couple issues getting ready, but now he’s figured it out and he’s gaining confidence,” said Willinger. “He’s not as tall as his brother, but he goes similar to Ponda Adventure. He’s straighter. He’s more correct than Ponda Adventure was. There are a lot of similarities, and I hope there continues to be.”

In the day’s $39,874 feature, This Jk Rocks and Marcus Miller settled in second in the five-horse Fox Stake while stablemate Gigi’s Dream cut the mile. Racing out of the last turn, Miller pulled on the right line and took aim at the leader. After quickly dispatching Gigi’s Dream, This Jk Rocks had to contend with a fast-closing Hopeyaliketheshow. The Jk Endofanera—This Peach Rocks gelding held on by a neck to claim his second win in five starts. Bred by Victory Hill Farm, his other victory came in Indiana Sires Stakes competition at Hoosier Park. Gigi’s Dream, also owned by Willinger in partnership, faded to fourth.

“This Jk Rocks, he’s a nice colt,” Willinger said. “He was good all winter, and we’re just blessed to have a good one at the right time to win the Fox. The few years we’ve had shots to race in it, they’re not ready to go, they’re not mature enough, they’ve got some knicks.”

While it was the owner’s first Fox Stake score, Erv Miller added his fourth as a conditioner. He previously won with Coach Stefanos (2022), Rockin Rusty (2017) and Sombaro Montae (2015). It was Marcus Miller’s first win as a driver.

Willinger is accustomed to seeing his horses perform well at the Indiana State Fair, but Wednesday was different. It was an event more than four decades in the making, and worth the wait. The Fox Stake no longer carries the clout it once did as a key event on the Grand Circuit calendar. It lacks an enticing purse in the now slots-fueled era. Those facts were irrelevant to an owner who had sought to claim victory in a race that captured his interest so long ago.

“We’ve had a couple pretty good days,” Willinger said a few hours removed from realizing his dream. “Two years ago we won three races. Today we won three, but the most important race was the Fox. That was the one I wanted to win. This was cool.”