Willinger lives his dream with long-awaited victory in the Fox Stake

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

by James Platz

Andy Willinger came to the Indiana State Fair in the summer of 1981 to campaign a gait filly with his parents. He left that day with aspirations of one day winning the coveted Fox Stake. On Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 7), 43 years after his first trip to Indianapolis, Willinger finally checked that item off his bucket list when rookie This Jk Rocks narrowly won the 98th running of the Grand Circuit’s signature race in a time of 1:52.2.

“It was very emotional when I walked out,” said Willinger, who owns This Jk Rocks in partnership with Doug Overhiser and Engel Stable of Il LLC. “I finally won the prize. I never would have thought that 43 years later I would be able to live my dream.”

In 1981, Willinger got her first taste of the Grand Circuit when her family traveled from the Kentucky Bluegrass to Circle City as part of the ownership group behind the young Sconce. She would go on to become a world champion in 2 and 3, running second to the great Three Diamonds in the Jugette. However, on Fox Day, she did not fare as well on the Indiana State Fairgrounds track.

“It had rained so hard that morning that they scraped the track. She was in the lead for three-quarters of the race and her feet started hurting so much that she had to backtrack across the field,” said Willinger, a resident of Louisville, Kentucky. “We stood there and watched the Fox. It was a great race. Back then, the purse was $160,000, $170,000. I was a 21-year-old kid. I said, ‘Man, this is great. This is like the Kentucky Derby, but for draft horses.’”

On that day, the Fox Stake speed record was set twice. Temujin, ridden by Clarence Martin, Sr., covered the mile in 1:54.4 to clinch the first heat. That mark was lowered in the second heat by Icarus Lobell, who triumphed in 1:54.2. Although Temujin fell off pace in the second heat, he recovered to finish fourth and claim the overall prize, as Icarus Lobell also fell off pace in the first heat and finished last.

In his own words, Willinger assumed he would have achieved the goal of winning the Fox Stake sooner. But the concentration of his racing interests did not always align with that goal. At one point, he focused more on buying mares and racing them, emphasizing their residual value as broodmares when they left the track. Over the past 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 former owner has followed suit. He likes the proximity and convenience of being close enough to watch from the track as his horses race at the fair or at Harrah’s Hoosier Park.

“We’ve recently started buying more yearlings from Indiana. For 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 see them live.”

Miller Stable’s Indiana team is preparing for the Fairgrounds Oval and Wednesday played into its favor. Miller-trained trotters and pacers won five of the 11 Grand Circuit events. Willinger was partner to three winners and owned pieces from 11 different entrants. In previous years, he had no more than four entries in the Fox Stake program.

“It was a really good day,” Willinger said. “Overall, everyone ran well.”

High Speed ​​Swan was the first to put Willinger in the winner’s circle. The Swan For All—Aunt Susie gelding won the $22,141 Hoosier Stake division for 2-year-old trotting colts by 4¼ lengths. Ridden by Mike Oosting, the rookie 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.

“We knew he had some speed in Florida, but he needs to grow,” Willinger said. “If you look at him, you can see he still has a lot of growing to do. I think he’ll be better as a 3-year-old than a 2-year-old. Mike just came in and trotted hard around the track. I think he’ll be a factor the rest of the year in the stallion stakes.”

Jada Caroline nearly added another win, coming within a head of stablemate Plays In The Shade in the $29,836 Horseman Stake for 2-year-old fillies. Two races later, Skyway Masterpiece took control after the quarter mile and never looked back, taking the $27,022 Horseman division for 3-year-olds in a time of 1:54. The Tellitlikeitis gelding was bred by Kenny Slabach and is owned by Overhiser, Engel Stable of Il LLC and Willinger, this time racing under the Lava Java Stable banner.

“He wasn’t mature enough to even think about competing in the Fox last season,” Willinger said. “We left him in the Indiana Sires Stakes-eligible races. He won in (1):49.4, so he has the ability. He’s on the cusp of becoming a competitive stallion-race horse.”

Although not a winner, Willinger was very impressed by the effort of rookie 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 trotting speed records for 2- and 3-year-old horses at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Ponda Rocky finished third Wednesday in the Ralph Wilfong Memorial, going around the oval in 1:59.1.

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

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

“This Jk Rocks is a very good colt,” Willinger said. “He was good all winter and we are lucky to have a good one at the right time to win the Fox. The few years we have had opportunities to compete in it, they are not ready to race, they are not mature enough, they have some problems.”

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

Willinger is used to seeing his horses perform well at the Indiana State Fair, but Wednesday was different. It was an event that had been more than four decades in the making and was worth the wait. The Fox Stake no longer has the clout it once had as a key event on the Grand Circuit schedule. It lacks an attractive purse in the era now dominated by slots. 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 of pretty good days,” Willinger said just hours away from realizing his dream. “Two years ago we won three races. Today we won three, but the biggest race was the Fox. That’s the one I wanted to win. It was great.”