Stillings, Barberry Spur together in Adios history
Barberry Spur and Dick Stillings head for the finish line in the 1986 Adios.
Observer-Reporter
Dick Stillings after his victory with Barberry Spur in the 1986 Adios.
Dick Stillings knows the pressure of driving in a big race.
He understands the intricacies of planning a good strategy and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of his horse. He knows how important positioning is on the track and how crucial it is to know when to make the right move.
On a hot, sunny day in August, 1986, Stillings was feeling plenty of nerves about his upcoming race, and it had little to do with his horse, a 3-year-old colt named Barberry Spur, the event, the Adios pace that is the centerpiece to the Meadows Racetrack annual racing card, or the competition, which would feature some of the best drivers in harness racing, each with an eye on the first-place prize of nearly $94,000.
“The nervous part was that the owners had reserved the outside (seating area) of one of the hotels nearby, and there was a bar set up and a band that was going to play,” said the 68-year-old Stillings. “The party was going to go on whether I won or lost, but that would have been the most embarrassing part, if I lost.
“That’s where the nerves came in. I was more nervous about that than I was during the race.”
Barberry Spur was one of the most heralded pacers in the country. The son of Niatross, Barberry Spur’s bloodlines made him the prohibitive favorite in the race, and he went off at 1-5.
Stillings drove Barberry Spur to a wire-to-wire victory in the elimination race, then repeated the feat in the final to capture the 1986 Adios.
Not only does Stillings victory stand as one of the great performances in the 50-year history of the track, it also kicked off one heck of a post-race party at the hotel.
“Once you get behind the starting gate (of the pace car), you really aren’t thinking about much,” said Stillings. “I do remember it was a hectic day.”
And a most remarkable one for Stillings, who has the distinction of being a local driver who drove a local horse, owned by a relatively local owner, Roy Davis of Pittsburgh, to victory in one of harness racing’s most difficult races. It was the first time a local horse won the Adios in 20 tries.
Stillings did it by setting a world record for two heats by 3-year-old pacers on a five-eighths-mile track, 3:46.8, breaking the previous mark of 3:47.6 set by Storm Damage in the 1980 Adios.
The race card on that day 27 years ago included Ogden Lobell, a talented pacer which was supposed to be driven by Bill O’Donnell. Interestingly, O’Donnell had driven Barberry Spur much of the season, but he turned the sulky to Stillings for the Adios to change his luck. O’Donnell drove one of the great pacers, Nihilator, to second-place finishes behind Marauder in the 1985 Adios and to Dragons Lair in the Breeders Cup in 1984.
Both loses came on the Meadows track.
When Stillings asked O’Donnell if he could drive Barberry Spur, the horse he had spent so many hours with as its trainer, O’Donnell said yes.
O’Donnell’s bad luck continued in the 1986 Adios, when Masquerade, driven by Richard Silverman, collided with the wheel disc on Ogden Lobell’s sulky in the first turn. O’Donnell injured his shoulder in the crash. Ogden Lobell was awarded fifth place in the six-horse field when judges ruled Silverman at fault for the crash.
It all happened behind Stillings, whose colt was untouchable on that day.
“From the time I put him in the stable until the time I sold him, (Barberry Spur) was a pleasure to drive. He was very intelligent, probably too intelligent for his own good, because he didn’t put his all into some of the races.”
Besides the nice check, Stillings received 26 cases of beer, compliments of Iron City. But don’t think Barberry Spur was shortchanged in the deal.
“I didn’t drink all that beer,” Stillings said. “A lot of the horses drank beer back then. A lot of people put beer in their feed. The drivers were the only ones who got tested.”
Stillings’ win in that Adios would be the pinnacle of his success in that race. He says he’s raced in seven or eight of them, driving Jaguar Spur to a second-place finish in 1987 and Kentucky Spur to a third-place finish in the 1988 Adios.
After graduating from Mt. Vernon High School in Ohio, Stillings served in the United States Army in Vietnam as an air-supply specialist.
“I packed parachutes,” he said. “I was fortunate to find that type of work. I didn’t see any action.”
Stillings worked with horses in high school, and began his driving career at The Meadows in the 1970s.
“One thing just led to another,” he said. “It gets into your blood.”
Among his great victories were driving Barberry Spur to the Little Brown Jug winner’s circle in 1986, then doing it again with Jaguar Spur in 1987. He took Kentucky Spur and Esquire Spur to Breeders Crown victories and won the Currier & Ives at The Meadows in 1990 with Cheyenne Spur.
He has more than $40 million in winnings and 5,000 victories, credentials that helped make him one of the inductees for this year’s class of the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.
“I’ve been really lucky in my life,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to meet Roy Davis. I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve been doing it a long time, so I better have enjoyed it.”