By Wes Mayberry
The phrase “Liberty Biberty” has become synonymous with Liberty Mutual ever since it was introduced in a 2019 TV commercial in which an actor struggled to pronounce the insurance company’s slogan. More recently, it has been brought to life in the form of an anthropomorphic fuzzy yellow ball wearing a Statue of Liberty-inspired crown. It’s also the name of a Standardbred horse who has been having great success in the Ohio fair circuit this season.
“She’s easy to handle — she doesn’t really pull or anything like that,” trainer Jessica McCown says of the 3-year-old Summa Cum Laude filly pacer out of America Rocks. “Once she gets out on the track, she’s a different horse than she is here in the barn. So it’s been fairly easy for anybody to get behind her and just go.”
Cameron McCown, Wyatt Farmer, Jason Beattie, and Jeff Nisonger have each driven Liberty Biberty to victory in what has been a breakout season for the filly. After recording a 3-2-1 record with earnings of $12,895 as a freshman, she has compiled a 9-6-0 mark while banking $42,003 in 25 starts in 2026. McCown says she trained down really well going into both her 2- and 3-year-old seasons but just needed a little extra time to develop as a freshman.
“At 2, I think she just kind of had a little learning curve. It just took her a little while to put it all together. She did have a couple wins last year at fairs, so we knew she kind of had talent. But we weren’t really sure what we had,” she says. “We turned her out at the end of her 2-year-old year and left her alone and brought her back at 3, and she trained down great. I think she still had a little bit of catching up to do from the 2- to 3-year-old season once she started racing. But once we started going to fairs, she really started to show her talent.”
There’s no doubt the filly has talent. As for the origin of her name, well, that’s less certain.
“That’s what she was named when we bought her out of the sale, so that was someone else’s idea,” McCown says.
Undoubtedly a nod toward the phrase from Liberty Mutual, the name also fits the Americana-themed names of some of America Rocks’ other foals, including Somewhereinamerica, Seatoshiningsea, Americagreatagain, Americathbeautiful, and Baberham Lincoln. Liberty Biberty’s Ohio-based owners — Heerzthestock Inc., of Bucyrus; Shawn Harville, of West Carrollton; and Scott Davis, of Belle Valley — decided to keep the name after purchasing Liberty Biberty for $15,000 at the Ohio Selected Jug Sale in September 2024 from breeder Stephanie Smith-Rothaug, of West Jefferson, Ohio. However, unlike the fuzzy Liberty Mutual character, who is meant to symbolize the good feelings of buying affordable insurance, the equine Liberty Biberty has proven a bit difficult to work with at times.
“Temperament-wise, she can be a little tough and a little hard to mess with sometimes,” McCown says. “But her groom does a great job with her. She kind of knows her quirks and gets along with her pretty good.”
As a freshman, Liberty Biberty scored wins at the Attica, Kenton, and Upper Sandusky fairs, showing glimpses of her potential. But her sophomore campaign got off to an uninspiring start, as she missed the board in each of her first seven purse races.
“Early on this year, she drew bad, so we had some trouble, especially at the racetracks,” McCown says. “It’s hard when you’re drawing the outside all the time.”
She followed that stretch by hitting the board in seven of her next 10 starts with two wins, including one at Scioto Downs in a lifetime mark of 1:55.
“We kind of knew she had the ability. It was more just the mindset of if she really wanted to do it or not,” McCown says. “She’s a really big filly, and I think she also just kind of needed to grow into herself. Once she did that, she really took off.”
She certainly did, putting together a streak of seven straight victories from Aug. 13 to Sept. 15. Those triumphs came at the Attica, Celina, Greenville, Lima, Richwood, Kenton, and Upper Sandusky fairs. But it was an earlier win, at Marysville, that most impressed McCown.
“She got away in the back, and they were really racing up front,” McCown says. “She went a hard trip that day to get the win, and that was kind of when we knew she does have some guts and some heart and some try to her.”
With her stable based at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, McCown was hoping Liberty Biberty would extend her win streak at her home track on Sept. 23 during Little Brown Jug week. It wasn’t meant to be, though, as she finished second, one length back of winner Mt Camas. Despite coming up a bit short that day, McCown was still looking forward to the latter stages of the 2026 season.
“She should be in the fair final,” she says. “She might make a couple starts at Dayton to prepare for that, but the fair final is what we’re pointed towards.”
Photo Credit: Conrad Photo