Dancer, Stanley F.
Harness racing
b. July 25, 1927, Edinburg, NJ
d. Sept. 8, 205
Dancer entered harness racing as a groom in 1946 and drove a few winners for other owners before buying the 8-year-old gelding Candor in 1948 for $300. He began driving Candor at Roosevelt Raceway in 1949. When Yonkers Raceway opened in 1951, Dancer was the track's top driver.
During the 1960s, Dancer began racing on the Grand Circuit. He was the sport's top money-winning driver in 1961, 1962, 1964, and 1966 and he was named driver of the year in 1968.
He's the only driver to win two trotting triple crowns, with Nevele Pride in 1968 and Super Bowl in 1972, and he won the pacing triple crown with Most Happy Fella in 1970. Dancer is also the only driver to have won the Yonkers Trot six times, in 1959, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1972, and 1975; the Cane Pace/Futurity four times, in 1964, 1970, 1971, and 1976; and the Hambletonian five times, in 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, and 1983.
He was pointing his own horse, Dancer's Crown, toward the 1983 Hambletonian, but the trotter died of intestinal problems three weeks before the race. Dancer was persuaded to drive Norman Woolworth's filly, Duenna, and won the race in straight heats.
His greatest horse was probably Nevele Pride, who won 26 of 29 starts in 1967 and was Harness Horse of the Year three times in a row, 1967 through 1969. Dancer also trained and drove Su Mac Lad, the 1962 Horse of the Year and the only trotter to win twice in 2 minutes or less on a half-mile track. Dancer's Noble Victory was the Aged Trotter of the Year in 1966, when he trotted the fastest race mile in history, a 1:55 3/5 at DuQuoin, IL.