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The Carol Jacko Great Denville Duck Race and Duck Decorating Contest returns to Gardner Field in Denville on Saturday, September 26, 2026. The Denville Sunrise Rotary Club runs the race, and a duck costs $10.
Check in opens at 10:00 a.m. Judging for the decorated duck contest runs from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., with activities for all ages on the field through the late morning. The race itself starts at noon, when the ducks go in the water and the first one across the line takes it.
Ducks are $10 each and are being sold around town ahead of race day at three Denville businesses: Denville Dairy, the Denville Farmers Market, and Denville Dog & Grill. Buying a duck is what enters it in the race, so there is no separate signup to fill out.
The decorating contest is open to anyone with a duck. The club says you can bring yours already decorated or decorate it on site during the judging window, and it has spent the run up to the race asking around town how people plan to dress theirs. The ducks on this year’s flyer turn up in sunglasses, angel wings, and full costume.
Gardner Field is at 2 Savage Road, just west of downtown Denville. It is a multi-use recreation complex with several ball fields, a fenced playground with a central gazebo, a covered picnic pavilion, and multiple parking areas spread across the property, so there is room to make a morning of it. There is no admission fee to the field itself, and the park is open dawn to dusk.
The race is named in memory of Carol Jacko, who founded it. This year’s platinum sponsors are Anthony & Sons Bakery, Dover Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, and Bell, Shivas & Bell, P.C.
If you are making a day of it, downtown Denville and its Broadway shops and restaurants are a five minute drive from the field, and we keep a running guide to things to do in Denville with the rest of what is worth stopping for.
Denville’s fall calendar keeps going from there. The Denville Food Truck Festival returns to the same Gardner Field on Sunday, October 4, 2026, putting two of the town’s biggest community days on the same patch of grass inside of nine days.
