Ohio-Owned Won The West Has Huge Cheering Section

DELAWARE, OH--The Strollin Stable partners from Marion and Hilliard, Oh will
be out in force Thursday afternoon when their colt Won The West goes to the
post in the second elimination of the $480,000 Little Brown Jug.

“There were 54 people in the winner’s circle after we won the Jug Preview at
Scioto Downs.  I counted them,” said Dr. James Kantzer, one of the gelding’s
owners, a veterinarian from Marion, OH.  “I’ve worked with harness horses
for 38 years and I never thought I would own a horse good enough to race in the
Jug.  My  boys (Jeff and Rob Kantzer) thought Won The West would be good
enough but I knew he was a longshot..” The fourth member of the Strollin Stable is
cousin Dr. Randy Kantzer, also from Marion. 

Dr. James Kantzer was the main veterinarian for the Bob Farrington Stable and
treated the millionaire pacer Rambling Willie.  “Horsemen like Bob, Dick and
Brad Farrington kept me close to the sport,” said Dr. Kantzer.   

Won The West will start from post position six with Jug favorite Always A
Virgin inside at post three.  “The No. 6 hole is tough but if anybody can get him
to the winner’s circle (driver) Greg Grismore can. He did an awesome job in
the Jug Preview,” said Dr. Kantzer.

Won The West comes into the Jug with 13 victories in 20 starts this season
and earnings of $311,914. 

The Strollin Stable partners along with Bill Robinson and James Koehler, of
Findlay, OH, purchased a half-interest in Won The West for $35,000 as a
yearling. 

“Our longtime trainer Brian Brown picked him out at the Harrisburg Sale.  He
trained him early as a two-year-old but he suffered a hairline fracture in his
right rear ankle and we quit with him,” said Jeff Kantzer.  Brown resumed the
colt’s training six months later and then moved him to the Mickey Burke
Stable.

“Brian knew Won The West was good and he felt that Mickey was better suited
to develop him as a stakes colt.”

Under Burke’s guidance, Won The West  captured several Pennsylvania Sires
Stakes legs at Pocono Downs and the Meadows and won an elimination of the Max
Hempt Memorial on June 12. Since then he has won the Cleveland Classic,
Tompkins-Geers Stake, an elimination of the Adios and the Jug Preview over a “sloppy”
track in 1:51.

Just a few weeks before Won The West broke his ankle his owners paid more
than $7,000 in stakes payments. Jeff said, “My brother Rob, who makes all of the
payments, sent each of us (Strollin Stable partners) this poem: We can’t carve
ducks. We can’t pick up chicks...so this is our hobby.”