Post by Big Tee© on Sept 8, 2005 18:55:10 GMT -5
Stanley Dancer Passes
September 8, 2005
One of the greatest horsemen ever to grace the sport of harness racing, Hall of Fame trainer-driver Stanley Dancer, died at his home in Pompano Beach, Florida, on Thursday after declining health for several years. He was 78.
Dancer, whose training base for most of his career was his farm in New Egypt, New Jersey, embarked on his career in harness racing in the years after World War II with Candor, a horse purchased with a $300 nest egg his wife, Rachel, brought to the marriage. At the peak of his career, the most powerful owners willingly gave him a blank check for the finest horses money could buy.
He won the Trotting Triple Crown twice, with Nevele Pride in 1968 and Super Bowl in 1972. Super Bowl's sweep was unmatched until last year when Windsongs Legacy accomplished the feat. Dancer also won the Pacing Triple Crown with Most Happy Fella in 1970.
Dancer trained the winners of five Hambletonians - Egyptian Candor (1965), Nevele Pride (1968), Super Bowl (1972), Bonefish (1975), and Duenna (1983), equaling the record of Billy Haughton for most wins in the prestigious trotting race. He drove all but Egyptian Candor to victory. Egyptian Candor was named in honor of Candor, about whom Dancer once said, "If Candor hadn't come along, I might still be milking cows."
Four Little Brown Jug winners were trained and driven by Dancer - Henry T. Adios (1961), Lehigh Hanover (1962), Most Happy Fella (1970), and Keystone Ore (1976). Four horses that Dancer trained, Keystone Ore, Albatross, Nevele Pride and Su Mac Lad, won seven Horse of the Year titles among them, more than any other trainer.
Dancer exerted inestimable influence on harness racing with his aggressive race tactics in the 1950s, when the half-mile tracks at Yonkers and Roosevelt were the Mecca of the sport. Dancer often sent his horse right to the front and dared anyone to beat him. More often than not, the tactic worked.
It was Dancer who bought the first yearling, Standardbred or Thoroughbred, to fetch a six-figure price when he paid $105,000 for a son of Adios in 1958. That colt's name was Dancer Hanover, named in honor of the nascent horseman. Throughout most of the next two decades, Dancer had owners with such deep pockets that he was invariably a bidder, and usually the buyer, when yearlings with the most glittering pedigrees sold.
"You tried to treat those yearlings just like any other horse," Dancer said, "but I was certainly aware of what they cost."
Dancer's rise to prominence in the sport paralleled the career of the late Haughton, four years older than Dancer, but whose energy and abilities knew no limit. The writers that covered New York racing in the 1950s called them the "Gold Dust Twins," and for eight consecutive seasons in the 1960s they finished first and second in the money-winning standings, with each claiming the top spot four times.
Though Dancer did not attend high school, he was a superb businessman. He recognized the value of publicity, both personally and for the sport, early in his career, and became a track publicist's dream. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with the million-dollar winner Cardigan Bay and was a guest of President Lyndon Johnson at the White House in 1968, the same year he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. In 1970, he beat boxer Joe Frazier in a baseball-hitting contest at Connie Mack Stadium.
Dancer got his 3,781st and final win as a driver in 1995 at Garden State Park, an 11-length victory with the horse Lifelong Victory in a New Jersey Sires Stakes event. He continued to train a few horses near his retirement home in Florida until 2000. Horses driven by Dancer earned $28 million during his career.
The effects of dozens of driving accidents plagued Dancer throughout much of his adult life; he lived with near-constant pain from complications of neck and spinal injuries.
Dancer is survived by his wife Joanne (Jody), sons Ronald, a New Jersey legislator, Stanley R. Dancer and daughters Susan Dancer Moyher and Shaldonna Chaisson, along with seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be on Monday, September 12, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, and services on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 11:00 am at Freeman’s Funeral Home, 47 E. Main Street, Freehold, NJ followed by one last mile around Freehold Raceway after the first race at 12:40 pm. Interment will follow at Maplewood Cemetery, which is across the street from Freehold Raceway. A special memorial service will be held at Pompano Park Harness Track at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Stanley Dancer Memorial Museum building fund at the New Egypt Historical Society, PO Box 295, New Egypt, NJ 08533, the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, 240 Main Street, Goshen, NY 10924; or Hospice Care of Southeast Florida, 309 SW 18th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316.
(HRC)
From Standardbred Canada Insider News
September 8, 2005
One of the greatest horsemen ever to grace the sport of harness racing, Hall of Fame trainer-driver Stanley Dancer, died at his home in Pompano Beach, Florida, on Thursday after declining health for several years. He was 78.
Dancer, whose training base for most of his career was his farm in New Egypt, New Jersey, embarked on his career in harness racing in the years after World War II with Candor, a horse purchased with a $300 nest egg his wife, Rachel, brought to the marriage. At the peak of his career, the most powerful owners willingly gave him a blank check for the finest horses money could buy.
He won the Trotting Triple Crown twice, with Nevele Pride in 1968 and Super Bowl in 1972. Super Bowl's sweep was unmatched until last year when Windsongs Legacy accomplished the feat. Dancer also won the Pacing Triple Crown with Most Happy Fella in 1970.
Dancer trained the winners of five Hambletonians - Egyptian Candor (1965), Nevele Pride (1968), Super Bowl (1972), Bonefish (1975), and Duenna (1983), equaling the record of Billy Haughton for most wins in the prestigious trotting race. He drove all but Egyptian Candor to victory. Egyptian Candor was named in honor of Candor, about whom Dancer once said, "If Candor hadn't come along, I might still be milking cows."
Four Little Brown Jug winners were trained and driven by Dancer - Henry T. Adios (1961), Lehigh Hanover (1962), Most Happy Fella (1970), and Keystone Ore (1976). Four horses that Dancer trained, Keystone Ore, Albatross, Nevele Pride and Su Mac Lad, won seven Horse of the Year titles among them, more than any other trainer.
Dancer exerted inestimable influence on harness racing with his aggressive race tactics in the 1950s, when the half-mile tracks at Yonkers and Roosevelt were the Mecca of the sport. Dancer often sent his horse right to the front and dared anyone to beat him. More often than not, the tactic worked.
It was Dancer who bought the first yearling, Standardbred or Thoroughbred, to fetch a six-figure price when he paid $105,000 for a son of Adios in 1958. That colt's name was Dancer Hanover, named in honor of the nascent horseman. Throughout most of the next two decades, Dancer had owners with such deep pockets that he was invariably a bidder, and usually the buyer, when yearlings with the most glittering pedigrees sold.
"You tried to treat those yearlings just like any other horse," Dancer said, "but I was certainly aware of what they cost."
Dancer's rise to prominence in the sport paralleled the career of the late Haughton, four years older than Dancer, but whose energy and abilities knew no limit. The writers that covered New York racing in the 1950s called them the "Gold Dust Twins," and for eight consecutive seasons in the 1960s they finished first and second in the money-winning standings, with each claiming the top spot four times.
Though Dancer did not attend high school, he was a superb businessman. He recognized the value of publicity, both personally and for the sport, early in his career, and became a track publicist's dream. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with the million-dollar winner Cardigan Bay and was a guest of President Lyndon Johnson at the White House in 1968, the same year he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. In 1970, he beat boxer Joe Frazier in a baseball-hitting contest at Connie Mack Stadium.
Dancer got his 3,781st and final win as a driver in 1995 at Garden State Park, an 11-length victory with the horse Lifelong Victory in a New Jersey Sires Stakes event. He continued to train a few horses near his retirement home in Florida until 2000. Horses driven by Dancer earned $28 million during his career.
The effects of dozens of driving accidents plagued Dancer throughout much of his adult life; he lived with near-constant pain from complications of neck and spinal injuries.
Dancer is survived by his wife Joanne (Jody), sons Ronald, a New Jersey legislator, Stanley R. Dancer and daughters Susan Dancer Moyher and Shaldonna Chaisson, along with seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be on Monday, September 12, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, and services on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 11:00 am at Freeman’s Funeral Home, 47 E. Main Street, Freehold, NJ followed by one last mile around Freehold Raceway after the first race at 12:40 pm. Interment will follow at Maplewood Cemetery, which is across the street from Freehold Raceway. A special memorial service will be held at Pompano Park Harness Track at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Stanley Dancer Memorial Museum building fund at the New Egypt Historical Society, PO Box 295, New Egypt, NJ 08533, the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, 240 Main Street, Goshen, NY 10924; or Hospice Care of Southeast Florida, 309 SW 18th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316.
(HRC)
From Standardbred Canada Insider News
