With Ants Marching, Little Brown Jug winner could be a local

Joe Mclead was working in pharmaceutical sales in 2011 when he came up with a plan for his family's Delaware, Ohio, homestead.

Named for its abundance of native sugar maples and the slope of the land, Sugar Valley Farm had been a small but successful breeder of standardbred horses since 1968, the year it was purchased by Mclead's grandparents, veterinarian Dale E. Walters and his wife, Evelyn.

Mclead grew up nearby, attending Hayes High School. His grandparents instilled in him the value of family and hard work, and when he was not in his classes, he learned racing at the knee of his uncle, acclaimed horseman Billy Walters.

By the time he was married and had a son, Mclead had served five years as general manager for famed standardbred breeder Winbak Farms. He eventually left the horse industry to find a better work-life balance, but the sport continued to tug at his heart.

When VLT terminals were being considered in the Ohio legislature for Ohio tracks, promising more money for racing, Mclead fielded a few inquiries about the best place a new stallion could start a Buckeye breeding career. It got him thinking a rejuvenated Sugar Valley might be just the place for that, so he called his uncle Billy, who was managing the farm with his aging parents.

“Do you want to go commercial with Sugar Valley, and I can quit selling pharmaceuticals and you can quit training?” Mclead asked.

Walters' response was immediate and succinct: “Absolutely not.” He eventually changed his mind. Just over a decade later, Sugar Valley Farms is home to seven of the top Buckeye State sires, including Ohio's leading stallion, Downbytheseaside.

And the same year the Little Brown Jug purse reaches $1 million, Mclead and Billy Walters will seek to get to the race winner's circle for the first time with another son of Delaware, a Sugar Valley Farms-bred pacing son of Downbytheseaside named Ants Marching.

“Nothing compares to being in the Little Brown Jug,” Mclead said. “A lot of people say it around the country, that they want to win the Jug, but being from here is different.

“When it comes to the Jug, every intangible you can think of comes into play. You get to do it in front of your hometown. You just hope you have a good showing.”

The Jug is as much in the Mclead/ Walters blood as Sugar Valley Farm, which is located just over two miles from the Delaware County Fairgrounds. The family has raced over the half-mile oval more times than they can count, with horses who often carried sweet monikers to reflect their birthplace.

Billy was 18 when he became the youngest driver to compete in the Little Brown Jug, finishing fifth in an elimination heat with Honey Cane. In 1985, he drove the family's home-bred champion, Saccharum, to a fourth-place finish in the Jugette on her way to $800,000 in earnings and Ohio Horse of the Year honors.

Soon after meeting on a blind date, Mclead took his future wife, Patty, to the 2003 Little Brown Jug.

It takes some luck to win the prestigious two-heat Jug. Mclead and Walters likewise needed a break to get where they are today.

That came a year after taking over Sugar Valley. Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order that led to the creation of Ohio's first “racino” at Eldorado Scioto Downs in June 2012. Purses at Ohio racetracks soon were the highest they had ever been, and more people came to the Buckeye State looking to buy and breed horses.

“We knew we were taking a hell of a risk,” Walters said. “But you've got to take risks. Sometimes they work out good. Sometimes they don't.”

The pair also took a risk when it came to Ants Marching, whom Mclead named for a song by his favorite singer, Dave Matthews.

The bay pacer started out at Sugar Valley, but he did not stay long, selling as a yearling at the 2021 Ohio Select Sale to trainer Nancy Takter and owners Howard Taylor and Steve Heimbecker for $125,000. When he started racing at age 2, Ants Marching quickly proved himself talented. And trying.

“We always said he was like Sonic the Hedgehog,” Takter said with a laugh. “He would go 100 mph and was hard to control. He had the worst attention deficit disorder. He was never a bad actor, but, boy, was he hyper.”

So hyper, in fact, that instead of pacing, Ants Marching galloped through five of his first eight races, and two of his connections had enough. Takter decided to castrate the horse, seeking to keep his mind on racing, and Heimbecker sold his interest in the pacer to Mclead and Walters.

The change in the horse was quick and noticeable.

Ants Marching won his first three races at age 3 and, on Sept. 9, won in a lifetime best of 1:49.4 at Eldorado Scioto Downs in the $100,000 Ohio Sires Stake Gray Championship, earning himself a trip to the 2023 Little Brown Jug. The pacer will start from post 6 Thursday in the first elimination race.

“We're like kids in a candy store right now, but we're just trying not to show it,” Mclead said. “The excitement is there, but you have to reel it in a little bit and realize that you're just a small part of it.”