Stanley Dancer dead at 78

Harness horse racing legend Stanley Dancer passed away yesterday at his Pompano Beach Florida home. He was 78 years old.

When you talk the great drivers of standardbred racing, Billy Haughton, Joe O'brien, are two but Stanley Dancer may have been the greatest of them all. He is the only driver ever to have three triple crown winners, 2 trotting and one pacing. His career was also long spanning fifty years.

Stanley was one of the four Dancer brothers who drove harness horses. The others are or were Vernon, Harold and James.

I met Stanley at least once in my life. See my father owned harness horses on and off for some thirty years. During the summer break from school, Dad often took us children to watch his horses race. New York City(and Florida but I lived in New York till I was 15.) area race tracks had tough rules against minors attending races, but other areas didn't. So I went to many races at Chicago area tracks, Sportsman and Hawthorne or Scioto Downs in Columbus Ohio, The Meadows south of Pittsurgh PA, or Atlantic City and Freehold in New Jersey. We also went annually to the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. Yes they had races there.

My father never had horses with Stanley. Our usual driver/trainers were Bruce Nickells, Billy Pocza, Max Lynch and Ted Taylor. My father however knew alot of people in the business and Stanley Dancer was among them.

In 1971 when I was 10 years old, my father took me to the Meadows for one night. The next day before leaving for Scioto, Dad and I had breakfast. We met Stanley at the restaurant that morning and we had our meals together. That's basically all I remember of the experience, I don't think I appreciated back then who I was meeting.

You will be missed Stanley. RIP. Friday Special- Cafe Oregano