Who Was Wiggle It Jiggleit? The 2015 Horse of the Year Dies at 14

Who was Wiggle It Jiggleit?

Wiggle It Jiggleit was a champion Standardbred pacer, the 2015 Dan Patch Horse of the Year in U.S. harness racing and a 2024 Hall of Fame inductee. He died earlier this month after a short illness at age 14, U.S. Trotting News and Standardbred Canada reported on Nov. 12, 2026.

Neither report gives an exact date or a cause, and we won't guess. What both make clear is how much he meant to the sport. He won 39 of his 66 races and was the horse people drove to the track to see.

A note on the money, because the sources differ. On the U.S. record, U.S. Trotting News gives $3.9 million and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame lists $3,945,839.

Standardbred Canada gives $4.09 million, but it keeps its books differently: under its policy, money won in the United States before 2024 was counted at par with Canadian funds. That total isn't a straight U.S.-dollar figure, so "about $4 million" is the honest way to say it.

The people behind the horse

This was a family story. He raced for owners George Teague Jr. and Teague Racing Partnership, out of Harrington, Delaware. George Teague Jr. is a Hall of Famer himself, and Wiggle It Jiggleit was his stable's second Horse of the Year after the filly Rainbow Blue in 2004.

The trainer of record through his big seasons was Clyde Francis. The driver, in race after race, was Montrell Teague, George's son. A young driver and a Delaware-born gelding taking on the sport's biggest stables was a large part of the appeal.

He was also a gelding, so there was never a breeding career waiting. The racing was the whole point.

The 2015 season: 22 wins in 26 starts

As a 2-year-old he raced only once, and won. At 3 he raced 26 times and won 22, according to his Hall of Fame profile.

The highlights of that year:

• A world record at home. Early in the season he paced a mile in 1:49 at Harrington Raceway, a world record for a 3-year-old pacer on a half-mile track.
• The Meadowlands Pace, one of the richest races for 3-year-old pacers.
• The Max C. Hempt Memorial, the Battle of the Brandywine, the Carl Milstein Memorial, the Progress Pace and the Matron.
• The Little Brown Jug, the one everyone remembers.

That season earned him three Dan Patch Awards: Horse of the Year, Pacer of the Year and champion 3-year-old male pacer. If you search for the 2015 harness Horse of the Year, he's the answer.

Wiggle It Jiggleit and the 2015 Little Brown Jug

The Little Brown Jug is run every September on a half-mile track at the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, Ohio. It's for 3-year-old pacers, and it's usually raced in heats: the horses race once to qualify, then the best come back the same afternoon. The published conditions also let the track run it as a single dash.

In 2015 the rules were tougher than today's eliminations and a final. A horse had to win two heats: if an elimination winner also won the second heat, the Jug was his, and if not, the three heat winners came back for a race-off.

Wiggle It Jiggleit won his elimination that day, and so did Lost For Words. Then came the second heat, which turned out to be the decider.

1. Lost For Words took the lead and got the easier inside trip.
2. Montrell Teague had to go the long way. He moved Wiggle It Jiggleit to the outside, where a horse covers more ground on every turn.
3. Near the three-quarter mark he looked beaten. He appeared to be dropping back, and on a tight half-mile track that is usually the end of it.
4. He came again. He re-rallied down the stretch and the two horses hit the wire together.
5. The photo went his way. Both obituaries describe the margin as a whisker.

Why is that race still replayed? Horses that start to drop back late in a race rarely fight back, and even less often after an outside trip in their second race of the afternoon. Fans saw a horse who simply refused to lose.

For how the Jug works today, see our guide to the Little Brown Jug 2026.

What is a pacer horse?

A pacer is a horse that moves both legs on the same side of its body together: right front with right hind, then left front with left hind. A trotter, by contrast, moves its legs in diagonal pairs.

Pacing gives the horse a slight side-to-side roll. Most racing pacers wear hopples, light straps that link the legs on each side and help the horse hold the gait at speed.

A few basics that make any harness race easier to follow:

• No jockey, as a rule. A driver sits in a light two-wheeled cart called a sulky. A few ridden races, called Racing Under Saddle, do exist.
• No galloping. A horse that breaks into a gallop must be pulled back to its gait and usually loses its chance.
• One mile, usually. In North America almost every race is a mile, which is why fans talk about times so much. A few are longer.
• The time format. A mile in "1:47.2" means 1 minute, 47 and two-fifths seconds. North American harness racing reports times in fifths of a second; Australia, for one, uses tenths.

His best mile of 1:47.2 came as a 4-year-old in the Graduate Series final on a sloppy track, according to Standardbred Canada.

Standardbred vs Thoroughbred

A Standardbred pacer like Wiggle It Jiggleit is a different breed from the Thoroughbreds you see in the Kentucky Derby.

Standardbreds are known for calm, sensible temperaments, which is why many go on to riding and pleasure driving after racing. You can explore more in our breeds guide and see what top young ones sell for in our piece on Beau Jangles' record sale.

After 2015: the older horse and retirement

He was just as busy at 4. In 2016 he won 15 of 24 starts, including the Canadian Pacing Derby, the Dan Patch Stakes, the Joseph Gerrity Jr. Memorial, the Battle of Lake Erie and the Graduate Series final. Canada gave him its O'Brien Award as older male pacer of the year.

His Hall of Fame profile shows he came back to race again at ages 7 and 8, adding one more win from 15 starts. He was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2024 as a living horse.

He spent the rest of his life at George Teague Jr.'s farm in Harrington, Delaware, a short trip from the track where he set that world record. Both obituaries note that visitors to the farm often asked to see him.

What to do and what to watch next

If this is the first you've heard of him, here's how to catch up and where to go from here.

• Watch the 2015 Jug's second heat. Replays are easy to find online. Watch the horse on the outside around the last turn, then watch him again in the last few strides.
• Learn the gait. Next time you see a harness race, look at the legs. Same-side pairs means a pacer. Diagonal pairs means a trotter.
• Visit the Hall of Fame. The Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in Goshen, New York, keeps profiles of every inducted horse, including his.
• Follow this year's stars. Our Breeders Crown 2026 recap covers the current champions.
• Go to a track. Harness racing is often held at county fairs and small tracks, and it's an easy, affordable family outing. Our horse safety basics help with kids around barns.

If the Teague family or Harrington Raceway announces a memorial or tribute, we'll add it here. For more stories like this, see Trends.