Pierce adds another title to résumé — Hall of Famer

Election to harness racing’s Hall of Fame is the exclamation point on a spectacular season for driver Ron Pierce of Millstone.

The Meadowlands’ leading driver was elected to the Living Hall of Fame by members of the United States Harness Writers Association [USHWA] earlier this month and will be inducted in ceremonies to take place next July in Goshen, N.Y.

“I was thrilled, but I found myself sort of expecting it,” Pierce said. “Everyone was telling me I was a lock, that I couldn’t miss, and things like that. One guy told me I was 1-5, but I told him, ‘I get beat on 1-5 shots all the time.’ So when I found out, it was great. I never really even thought about it for a long, long time. Nine or 10 years ago, Stan Bergstein (executive vice president of Harness Tracks of America) told me to just keep doing what I was doing and that if I continued, I’d make it to the Hall of Fame. I never forgot him telling me that.”

Twenty-seven years after his first Meadowlands victory, Pierce, 48, enjoyed a resurgence that catapulted him to the top of the driving colony for the first time in 2004. Pierce finished the meet with 256 victories and $5,744,873 in earnings. Although he has ranked in the Top 10 for more than a decade, he had never previously won a driving title at the Meadowlands. Pierce’s accomplishments in 2004 include his 5,000th career win behind the sensational filly Rainbow Blue and a pair of Breeders Crown victories with Boulder Creek and Armbro Affair. He currently leads all drivers in North America in earnings with $7.1 million in purses won.

Pierce’s wife, Louise [Lulu], and mother, Dolores Brower, were in the winner’s circle for many of his stakes wins this season.

“I think my wife is more thrilled than me,” he said. “And my mother is tickled to death. She and my stepdad will fly in [from the West Coast] next July for the ceremony.”

Born in Livermore, Calif., Pierce followed his father, Don, into harness racing. Pierce won his first Meadowlands race in 1977 but did not establish himself full-time at the East Rutherford oval until 1987. In between, he captured titles at Cal Expo, Los Alamitos, Fairplex, Canterbury Downs and Macau Racetrack, located off the coast of Hong Kong in southeast China. The reinsman credits the advice of Hall of Fame driver and trainer Stanley Dancer as having helped to shape the path of his career.

“Stanley Dancer had a huge impact on my career, especially early on,” Pierce said. “I was only 19, and too shy to go see him myself, but I knew [Stanley’s nephew] Donald, and one day he brought me to Stanley’s office. He sat me down, a kid he barely even knew, and for an hour told me things that, to this day, I take with me and never forget. Stanley had a different way of saying things, but he always got his point across. He told me that if a dog bites me once, it’s his fault, but if it happens again, it’s mine. Stay away from him — that kind of thing. He told me to conduct myself in a professional manner and people would notice. He told me not to worry about a bad drive. You can’t relive each and every drive — just to do the best I could and continue on. It meant so much to me as a young guy starting out for a guy like that to talk to me and help me.

“Now, going into the same Hall of Fame with guys like Stanley and Billy Haughton and Howard Beissinger and John Campbell — it’s an unbelievable feeling.”

“[Ron’s] a great guy, a high-class fella,” Dancer said after learning of his former student’s Hall of Fame election. “I’m very happy to hear it. I knew him when he was just coming up, and I suggested to him that he drive at the smaller tracks to get some experience. He needed that. He did just that, and I think it helped him immensely. He turned out great.”

Pierce has captured nearly every classic stakes event in harness racing, including nine Breeders Crown championships, two Little BrownJugs, the Hambletonian, Meadowlands Pace, Woodrow Wilson, Kentucky Futurity and Yonkers Trot. His career earnings of more than $83 million place him eighth on the all-time list.

Some of the best horses Pierce has been associated with over the years include Triple Crown winner Blissfull Hall, American Winner, Cambest, Shady Character, Shady Daisy, Like A Prayer and this year’s filly pacing star Rainbow Blue. He won the 2003 Peter Haughton Memorial with Tom Ridge and was the driving force behind 2003 divisional champions Mr. Muscleman and I Am A Fool.