In harness racing, had John Wallace of Iowa not started his American Trotting
Register in 1867 and his Year Book in 1885, there would be no continuity of
either the breeding or racing record of our breed.

  And if Jack Elliott of Ohio had not started collecting and collating the films and
videotapes of the great races of the modern era, the sport would have no visible
record of its equine stars.

Elliott came out of western New York, near Buffalo Raceway, fought in the
Battle of the Bulge with the 79th Infantry as a teenager, came home and
attended Broadcast Engineering School in Kansas City, and wound up first with
WBEN-TV in Buffalo and then with NBC's WNBK in Cleveland as technical
director. In 1960 he took the same job with Midwest Sports Network and later
left that net for broadcast sales. He sold Northfield Park its first TV system in
1967 and was its first cameraman, videotape editor and one-man show. He
started his own company in 1968 and six years later installed the first color
camera at Scioto Downs. A lovely lady named Kay -- who happens to be Jack's
wife -- operated the main pan camera at Scioto and the "Jug" for 20 years.⁽¹⁾

 In 1975 -- Seatrain's Jug -- Jack Elliott realized the sport was short on film
 history. He began borrowing USTA films of old Hambletonians and Jugs and with
 USTA's blessing converting them to videotape. They became the Great
 American Trotters and Little Brown Jug Greats of Jack's company,
 Colorigination.

Four years ago Jack started a Best of the Year Review for trotters and pacers,
including a PAL VHS format that sells widely throughout Europe and
Australasia. The tapes are two hours long and contain full races, not merely
stretch drives, and he now produces tapes for Canadian races as well. His tapes,
which include some 40 races, sell for $54 delivered for one or $75 for both. They
make fine holiday gifts, but far more important they constitute a record of
greatness important to the sport.
 


^{Footnotes:
1 - Kay Elliott passed away in 1998 . She was a big part of the operation of Colorigination and she will be missed .}