Indiana fair circuit champ Kirkland a special horse for the Dever family
by James Platz
A victory in the Governor’s Cup Championships is a thrill for anyone competing on the Indiana fair circuit. When trainer/driver Jeff Dever steered sophomore pacer Kirkland to triumph in the Aug. 13 finals at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, the victory was particularly poignant. The JK Endofanera—My Heart’s Desire gelding carries special significance for the ownership group of Jeff and his fiancée, Karissa Jones, (Dever Racing Stable LLC) and his mother, Linda.
“My mom was in the hospital, and we had just raced a 3-year-old and sold it,” Linda said. “She said that she always wanted a horse… She said, ‘I don’t have any now.’ We just got done racing at the fairs, and we sold them. And she says, ‘You go to the sale and buy me a yearling. We’ve got to have a horse to race.’”
The trio obliged Linda’s mother, Lucy Shirley, and attended the Northern Indiana Yearling Speed Sale in September 2023 in search of a horse. Shirley was accustomed to regularly having a horse in the barn. Together with her husband, Neal, the two operated Shirley Stables for decades, racing out of the Converse Fairgrounds. Sticking to their budget, the trio purchased Kirkland, cataloged as Hip #62 in a book of 87 yearlings. His pedigree includes several familiar names to fans of Indiana racing. The third dam, Tammy C Tresa, is a multiple Indiana Sire Stakes leg winner that produced six different winners including Brookstone, a $368,000 winner with a mark of 1:50.2. The final bid was $3,750, and Lucy Shirley once again had a horse.
“It perked my mom up enough; we didn’t think she was going to come out of the hospital, but she did,” Linda said. “She lived another three months after that before she passed away. But she told us, ‘You keep that horse. You race it. You and Jeff take him racing.’ And so that’s what we did.”
Shirley died in January of 2024 without seeing Kirkland compete. She would have been thrilled to see her grandson develop the pacer and race on the fair circuit. With Jeff serving as trainer and driver, the gelding made 10 starts during the 2024 campaign, seven of them at the fairs. Kirkland collected five wins and four runner-up finishes, taking a freshman mark of 1:55 in a win at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. Jeff steered him to a second-place performance in the $25,000 Governor’s Cup final that season, his last start of the campaign. He finished the year with $23,400 on his card.
“He’s been a real nice, easy going horse,” Jeff said. “We decided to stake him to only the fairs last year. So, we did the fair circuit. He seemed like he was going to be a pretty nice 3-year-old, so we turned him out early. We brought him back this year, and we went to Kentucky early with him just to get some starts on him early.”
Kirkland started his campaign at Oak Grove, winning twice before moving to Hoosier Park and contesting a few of the early Indiana Sire Stakes legs. Jeff then called an audible and returned to the fair circuit with his charge.
“We tried him in the sire stakes,” Jeff said. “It looked like he was going to make the consolation, maybe. So, last minute decision, we decided to go ahead and start racing him and get the seven starts at the county fairs to make him eligible for the Governor’s Cup. Grandma always joked around that she would always take a 52 horse, even out to the fairs. And that’s kind of what we did this year, with her horse.”
Kirkland made the prerequisite seven starts at the fairs in order to qualify for the championships, earning four victories in the process. In the Governor’s Cup final, the sophomore improved on his runner-up effort of the year before, holding off Derek’s Rocket by a half-length in a season’s best time of 1:52.4. Lucy Shirley’s horse is now a fair champion.
“This horse is very special to us,” Linda said. “And we see little signs of my mom every time we race him. So, it keeps my mom and dad alive in me. And I know they’re watching down on us. So, he’s just kind of a special little horse, and it just thrills me that Jeff is the driver and trainer on him and doing so well.”
Linda and her husband, Randy, operated a stable for years, with Jeff growing up in the business. Multiple generations on both sides of the family participated in racing. When Randy closed the stable, Jeff also found himself out of the business. After a few years away, however, he returned to the sport upon the urging of family.
“Once it’s in your blood, it just kind of stays there,” Jeff said. “My grandparents always had horses, and then they kind of talked me back into getting one or two and racing some of theirs. So, you just can’t get it out of your blood once you’ve got it.”
Racing is currently a part-time endeavor for Jeff, but he would like to make a career of it. With the help of his father and fiancée, the stable is slowly growing. He believes the key is assembling the right group of owners, as well as having good help in the barn.
“It’s just getting the right people and then being able to grow that into wherever it’s going to go,” Jeff said. “I couldn’t do this without the help of my dad. He’s been a big help in the barn. He comes to the barn and jogs and does everything that I need or want. And then Karissa, she is also a big part of this. She brings horses down and races them at Hoosier when I’ve got to stay at home to jog or train.”
The stable is on an upward trajectory. So far this season, Jeff has set new milestones as a conditioner and driver. Last season he sent out 12 winners. This year, he already has 20 wins to his credit with starters earning over $117,000. As a driver, he has more than doubled his 2024 win count, guiding 18 winners and accumulating purse earnings just shy of $100,000. His Governor’s Cup victory with Kirkland is the second championship in three years for the 45-year-old. He also claimed a pair of consolation races this season.
“It makes me really proud that Jeff’s following in our ancestors’ footsteps,” Linda said. “It means a lot.”
