Harness Racing: Mud in Stanley’s Eye

Stanley Dancer, 38, is a big man around the East’s big-city harness tracks. For three out of the past four years, Trainer-Driver Dancer has been the sport’s No. 1 money winner; in 1964, he became the first ever to win more than $1,000,000 in a single season.

But to folks around the back-country “grand circuit,” where sulky racing got its start, Dancer still has a big one to go.

“Shucks,” they say, “that man has never won the Hambletonian.” Last week in Du Quoin, Ill., Stan failed again to win trotting’s most prestigious race. Guess who beat him? His wife.

If parimutuel betting had been permitted (it wasn’t) at the Du Quoin State Fair Grounds, Dancer’s Noble Victory would have been the odds-on favorite.

Owned by Houston Oilman K. D. Owen, trained by Stanley, and beaten only once in 28 starts, the chocolate-colored three-year-old colt had won more money ($280,566) than any other Hambletonian contestant in history. The only real competition was expected to come from a rawboned Canadian filly named Armbro Flight, who was riding an even longer winning streak: 22 straight, but mostly against weaker horses. Nobody, including Dancer, gave much thought to the chances of Egyptian Candor, owned by Stanley’s wife Rachel, trained by Stanley and driven by Del Cameron, an old family friend. After all, Noble Victory had beaten Egyptian Candor ten times in two years.

Four in the Fudge. Heavy rain fell all night before the race, and by post time the clay track was the consistency of soft fudge. Unlike flat-racing thoroughbreds, who plant their hoofs, then pick them straight up—and often revel in the softer footing of an “off” track—trotters slide their hoofs slightly forward each time they take a stride; they tend to slip and get mired in the mud. That is exactly what happened to Noble Victory: twice in the three-heat race, he broke stride; in the third heat, the best he could do was third. “He seemed like he was anchored,” said Dancer disgustedly. “He just couldn’t handle the going.” Armbro Flight won one heat, Egyptian Candor won another, and an outsider named Short Stop won the third. The Hambletonian goes to the first horse that wins two heats. So the race went into overtime—a trot-off among the three heat winners. Before the final, Cameron offered Dancer the seat in Egyptian Candor’s sulky. Stanley refused, and Cameron went on to win by a head in 2 min. 10.2 sec.—second slowest time in Hambletonian history. “The best horse didn’t win,” Cameron said later. “Noble Victory was the best horse.” Try and tell that to Rachel Dancer, whose winner’s share of the $122,245 purse—$59,900—put her one up on her husband.