Hall of Famers John Campbell and Bob McIntosh clicked in the $143,640 second heat of the Jugette with L A Delight on Wednesday, September 21 at Ohio’s Delaware County Fair. The daughter of Bettors Delight hauled down Call Me Queen Be, who had paced to a world record performance earlier in the afternoon.

L A Delight is a homebred of Robert McIntosh Stables Inc. (of Windsor, Ont.), the CSX Stables (Liberty Center, Ohio), and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc. (Leamington, Ont.). Campbell had steered L A Delight just once prior to Jugette Day. ‘Mr. Harness Racing’ sat behind her in the Jugette’s opening heat and had finished second to Call Me Queen Be in her 1:50.1 world record mile.

Courtesy of her sizzling win in the opening heat, Call Me Queen Be (driven by Scott Zeron) started from Post 1 in the second heat. Campbell and L A Delight started right alongside them in Post 2.

The pair of horses sat ‘one-two’ throughout the course of the mile. Zeron shot off the wings of the starting gate with Call Me Queen Be and was first down to the opening quarter in :27.1. Campbell and his millionaire mount were drafting right behind, and did so until the showdown began.

The middle fractions were cut in :56.2 and 1:25. There wasn’t too much movement behind Call Me Queen Be and L A Delight. Pure Country (Brett Miller) had a good view of the action in third, while Yankee Moonshine and Yannick Gingras were a tad back in fourth.

Campbell made his move in the final quarter. At the age of 61, the sport’s most decorated reinsman timed his move perfectly. Campbell tipped off the final turn right before the head of the stretch and L A Delight appeared to have a lot of pace in reserve. L A Delight dug in and slowly but surely made up ground with every stride. She wore down Call Me Queen Be, as the latter’s star reinsman, Zeron, 27, did all he could to hold off the rush of the pocket rocket.

L A Delight ($8.20) passed Call Me Queen Be in the final sixteenth and went on to hit the wire first. The reserved Campbell showed a little emotion on the occasion, as he gave a slight fist pump and clearly felt the emotion of the moment.

“It’s pretty exciting to win a race here, especially with the magnitude of the Jugette,” Campbell said afterward, during a brief winner’s circle interview with announcer Roger Huston.

Yankee Moonshine and Yannick Gingras rounded out the top three.

The win with L A Delight was Campbell’s record fifth Jugette victory and his 155th overall at the Delaware County Fair. Meanwhile, McIntosh tied Billy Haughton with his third victory in the Jugette.

“She’s (L A Delight) never really raced a bad race,” McIntosh told Huston. “She’s pretty much the best filly that I’ve had that has made a million dollars. She’s a professional.”

McIntosh stated that L A Delight will now move on to an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event, followed by her OSS Super Final and then the Breeders Crown.

(Standardbred Canada)