John G. Hayes, Sr. (July 17, 1919 – December 8, 1998), was a

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australi ...

driver, trainer, and owner who was inducted into the Canadian and American harness racing halls of fame. Born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, Hayes was the son of a

dairy farmer Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that ...

, and went on to become a prominent figure in harness racing and the first Canadian to be selected to the Little Brown Jug's Wall of Fame. His greatest accomplishment was in training horses in particular when he developed the great champion,

Strike Out In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is denot ...

. A longtime director of the Canadian Trotting Association, for ten years Hayes served as its president. Hayes was also vice-chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission. It had been Hayes' lifelong dream to win the Little Brown Jug, and was famous for having told a newspaper reporter: "I'd rather win the Little Brown Jug than go to heaven." When he died in 1998, the Little Brown Jug itself, won by Strike Out in 1972, was placed at the head of his casket. John Hayes was inducted into the

Little Brown Jug Wall of Fame Little Brown Jug Wall of Fame honors those persons who have made a contribution to the success of the Little Brown Jug harness race. It is located at the Delaware County, Ohio fairgrounds at 236 Pennsylvania Avenue, Delaware, Ohio. Through the ausp ...

in 1990, the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1991, and the United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2005.

Beejay Stable

The Beejay Stable was a harness racing stable and breeding business owned by John Hayes as managing partner in a partnership formed in 1959 with Montreal's Shapiro brothers, Conrad, Leo, and Robert. Among the horses owned by the partnership were Sharp 'n' Smart, Penn Hanover, Keystone Pat, Alley Fighter, and their most successful, the hall-of-fame pacer,

. Twenty-five years after the partnership was first formed, they established the Quarter Century Club as a vehicle for investments in various racing stock such as a share in sire

Albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...

and businesses including

Castleton Farm Castleton Lyons near Lexington, Kentucky, is an American horse-racing stable and breeding business best known by the name Castleton Farm. History The farm was established in 1793 when Virginian John Breckinridge, a future U.S. senator and attorne ...

and the Tattersalls Sales Company in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

.Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame
retrieved September 29, 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, John 1919 births 1998 deaths Canadian harness racing drivers Canadian harness racing trainers Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductees United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame inductees Canadian racehorse owners and breeders Sportspeople from Oshawa