By Susanne Reardon

The achievements of Harvey Lawrence Vanier have the record books bursting. Always a smile, with his familiar Panama hat, in the paddock, in winner’s circle, with wife Nancy by his side, Harvey has been a fixture for 60 years.

The years have shared a singular theme; a life devoted to his passions: family, love, horses, and hard work. Harvey Vanier has achieved the pinnacle of success in every way important to him, and he is enjoying the rewards he so deserves.

2010 is a banner year for Mr. Vanier as he celebrates sixty years of training racehorses, and his 50th wedding anniversary with wife Nancy Aitken Vanier. Going strong at age 86, Vanier has achieved more in the racing world than most could hope of accomplishing in several lifetimes.

Harvey Vanier’s Nebraska Roots

Harvey came from humble beginnings with strong Heartland roots. Born April 21, 1924 in Diller, Neb., located near the Nebraska-Kansas border, he was the fourth child of Lawrence and Marie Vanier, who, with three sisters ahead of him, declared, “A boy, finally!”

Young Harvey, named after Doctor Harvey, who delivered him, thrived during the bleak Depression era. When he was 5, Harvey was so enamored with animals he walked a mile to a neighbor’s farm when he heard they were giving away goats, somewhat against his parent’s wishes. With his new treasure, the groundwork was laid for his future in racing. That’s because Harvey, almost every day, raced against his goat from the mailbox by the local road to the front porch of the family home.

Some years later, an old western saddle, unearthed from the barn, was traded for a pony that Harvey rode to school. The only hitch was that he had to first break the pony, and then learn to ride. Vanier quickly mastered the pony and was the first to arrive at the schoolhouse each day, much to the chagrin of his sisters, who traveled by a slower-paced horse-drawn buggy.

The Jefferson County Fair beckoned at a time when the Nebraska plains were suffering from an intense drought. These were the Dust Bowl days at the height of the Great Depression. When Harvey’s father saw an advertisement for “Horse Races at Varied Distances, Purse Money to Be Awarded”, he immediately had a plan, but needed a racehorse.

The father and son team traded with gypsies passing through town eggs, milk and farm equipment for a horse with racing bloodlines. The acquisition was put in training on a make-shift track ploughed from the farm’s field. With young Harvey as jockey, the fair arrived, and the horse won!

At 12, Vanier continued to ride at Nebraska and Missouri racing fairs. He had his sights set on becoming a professional jockey, so he rode at bush tracks, without a helmet, and shod his own horses. Vanier’s prowess on the track was without question, but his growing size defeated him. In one interview he said, “At 17, I graduated from high school, and I didn’t realize that over the Winter I was up to 125 (pounds). And I never could get it down, really. I was a bad reducer.”

Another plan was put in place. Racehorses were purchased for young Harvey to train. And then World War II began.

After the War, on to the Races

Off to fight the war, stationed in England, France and Germany, Harvey wasn’t summoned to the lethal front lines. When Japan entered the War, his unit was deployed on a battleship destined as the ground force against Japan. But the war ended, and Harvey finished his time stationed in Maryland with spare moments spent at Pimlico Racetrack.

After being discharged, Vanier got his trainer’s license and put together a small stable of horses. He raced at Keeneland, Churchill Downs, Oaklawn Park, Ak-Sar-Ben, Fair Grounds and Gulfstream Park, “wherever the horse can win.” And win he did carving out a name for himself.

Vanier was well respected in the racing community having a reputation for a great eye for horses. Then, Harvey encountered a “lovely young filly” that would change his life forever. He was seated with Nancy Aitken at a dinner-dance in 1959 at Idlewild Country Club in Lexington, Ky. The two began a whirlwind romance, and were married a year later on the second Saturday in May, 1960.

Both were busy the first Saturday in May, of course!

Through the 1960’s, the Vanier’s trained for family connections with two standout colts, full brothers Ten Forty and Rapid Jim, gaining momentum as trainers and adept breeders. Moving ahead, in 1970, after a second place finish in the Arkansas Derby with Admiral Shields, who went on to win the 1970 Derby Trial, they felt ready to take on the Kentucky Derby, unfortunately without luck.

From there, the accomplishments kept rolling. The bright and bold Architect, one of Nancy’s home-breds, won 10 races in a row in 1979 finishing 6th in the Derby the same year. Not long after, another Vanier-trained notable, Safe Play captured the 1982 G-I La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita.

In 1983, another Vanier horse made the Run for the Roses. Play Fellow won the G-I Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, and went on to run as the 6th place finisher in the Kentucky Derby. Play Fellow raced in the Preakness Stakes, and later that summer in the prestigious Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course bringing home the trophy for the Vanier stable.

Among Vanier’s greats was Western Playboy, son of Play Fellow, who won the 1989 Blue Grass Stakes, then finishing 6th in the Kentucky Derby. He went on to win the Jim Beam Stakes and Pennsylvania Derby before retiring to the shed becoming widely recognized as one of the most prolific sires in Illinois breeding history.

Building a Dynasty in Illinois

After a serious ride to the top with success in Maryland, Kentucky, California and New York, the Vanier’s decided on Illinois to stake their claim. They purchased Fairberry Farm in 1960, the year they were married.

The Illinois breeding program was conceived by this visionary duo, and they have become as responsible for the success of the state’s program as anyone. The Nebraska-bred giant along with Nancy founded a dynasty that defines racing at its finest. With daughters Lyda Williamson and Jennifer Allen, and Lyda’s husband, noted trainer Brian Williamson, who handles training duties for the Vanier stable, it is truly a family business . (Lyda is also 2nd V.P. and a board member of ITBOF.)

Grandson’s Brian Harvey, 16, and Samuel Williamson, 12, sons of Lyda and Brian, are involved too, and consider racetrack paddocks home (In fact, Brian Harvey recently became a partner with Nancy’s sister, Jane Aitken, in a Keeneland purchase). Jennifer Allen and husband Frank live in Buffalo, NY. Frank is an accomplished airline pilot and horseman.

Nancy presides over breeding duties using a fairly straightforward formula in her breeding strategy. “I like to mix it up a little bit,” she smiles, thinking of her success stories.

Present day, elite rosters of stallions stand at Fairberry Farms, the multi-faceted “home base” of the Vanier’s, which sits on 470 acres in Waterloo, Ill. located about 25 miles southeast of St. Louis. Few facilities boast an eighth-mile indoor training track, half-mile outdoor track, or the devotion to raising sound, fast and healthy racehorses to which Fairberry lays claim. Their ancillary facility, Rightaway Farm near Versailles, Ky. was purchased in 1982, and provides a perfect outpost for Kentucky- bred foals.

Among the stallions who today call Fairberry Farm home is Straight Line, multiple graded stakes winner and one of the most versatile of the Fairberry breeding shed. Able to produce progeny that can win at 5-½ furlongs to 1-1/16 miles on varied surfaces, the stallion was a $15,000 purchase at the September 2003 Keeneland sale. The operation has Powerful Goer, proven to pass on the ability for dirt, poly or turf, and short or long distances; Animo de Valerosa (out of Pulpit), Bonafide, and Three Hour Nap also stand.

Richard L. Duchossois, Chairman, Arlington Park, said, “Harvey has been one of the mainstays of the thoroughbred racing industry in Illinois, and without his great support this industry could not have moved forward as far as it has. We are all indebted to Harvey.“

Through 2010, Harvey Vanier has won nearly 2000 races and his horses have earned more than $40 million. Among his many accomplishments is winning 143 races at Keeneland, including 7 stakes races. His win record is among the top trainers of all time at the Lexington, Ky. track.

The Vanier’s are truly “The First Family of Illinois” racing with Harvey and Nancy recognized as the undisputed royalty of Illinois horse racing for five decades and counting. Successful with horses and successful in marriage, the couple has proven to be an incredible team. In fact, Harvey once quipped to a reporter, “We’d better be a team. We’re married.” When the reporter asked Harvey what keep he and Nancy going strong, the trainer chuckled, “Arguing between each other.”

While situated among the nation’s great trainers where his lifetime of achievement has placed him, Harvey Lawrence Vanier remains a grateful man. He told the great turf writer, Neal Milbert of the Chicago Tribune in an interview in 1994, “The horses are the players and without the players there is no team. Good horses are what you need to win races. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve had nice horses for nice clients.”

Today finds Harvey and Nancy continuing to stand tall side by side after fifty years together, and still head and shoulders above the crowd.

The Day I Met Harvey and Nancy Vanier

By TVG’s Chris Kotulak

The first time I saw Mr. & Mrs. Vanier was when they ran a horse in the 91’ Ak-Sar-Ben Budweiser Breeders’ Cup. I recall being as impressed by them as I was their late-running, mud-loving, homebred filly, Bungalow, out of their homebred mare Westward Hope. Going back another generation, she was out of Parlor, who was also bred by the Vaniers.

I thought to myself, “Who is this kind looking fellow in a jacket and tie and Panama hat, who shows up to our races with his smiling wife right at his side? How sweet!” I soon learned that the pair was not only sweet, but successful, and the trainer’s wife wasn’t just window dressing to compliment the trainer.

Bungalow would win the 91’ Aks Bud Breeders’ Cup, and then come back the next year to win it again; and she was a perfect representation of the Vanier breeding and racing success.

When I think of Chicago racing, Harvey and Nancy Vanier have for many years been among the names that who immediately come to my mind. When I think of Illinois-breds they are the first to come to mind.

Among Harvey Vanier’s Training Accomplishments

•  Trainer of Architect, who won 10 straight races in 1979, Stakes winners Admiral’s Shield, Bungalow, Kodiak, Lt. Pinkerton, Play Fellow, Safe Play, Southern Playgirl, Storm on the Loose, Wade for Me, Western Playboy, and Win Me Over.
• Leading trainer at the 1987 Keeneland spring meet.
• Leading trainer at Arlington 1987, 1989, and 1993-1997.
• Tied for third in the Hawthorne 2002 spring standings.
• Finished fourth in the Arlington 2000 standings while Nancy Vanier finished seventh in the owners’ standings.
• Among the career leaders in wins at Keeneland with 143,
  including 7 stakes wins.
• Winner of two Blue Grass Stakes

Major Racing Wins

Derby Trial Stakes	1970, 1977	Lane’s End Stakes	1989
Rebel Stakes	1970	Pennsylvania Derby	1989
Fayette Stakes La Canada Stakes	1979 1982	Robert F Carey Memorial Handicap	1989, 1995, 1996
American Derby Arlington Classic	1983, 1987 1983	Turfway Park Fall Championship Stakes	1993
Blue Grass Stakes	1983, 1989	Washington Park Handicap	1993
Travers Stakes	1983	Sixty Sails Handicap	1994
Donn Handicap	1984	Alcibiades Stakes	1996
Shadwell Turf Mile Red Bank Stakes	1987 1988	Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes	1996
Cornhusker Hdcp	1989, 1995	Isaac Murphy Handicap	1997

Western Playboy: Horse of a Lifetime

By Tom Ferry

Throughout a long and distinguished journey, one of Harvey and Nancy’s most rewarding moments came with Western Playboy’s triumph in 1989’s Blue Grass Stakes (G1). Bred in Illinois, Western Playboy was also raised and stood stud at their Fairberry Farm.

Across a 45-race career, he collected earnings of $1,128,449. In addition to the Blue Grass Stakes success, Western Playboy also garnered wins in the Jim Beam Stakes (G-II),establishing a track record, and the Pennsylvania Derby (G-II) during his 3-year-old campaign.

Harvey and Nancy brought Western Playboy to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May that year to run in the Kentucky Derby. He didn’t place, but then again, a pair of competitors named Sunday Silence and Easy Goer were in the field that day.

As a stallion, Western Playboy sired four stakes winners, two of which were graded. Illinois’ first millionaire died in April of 2007 and was buried at the Fairberry Farm.

About Tom Pauly’s caricature of Harvey and Nancy

Equine artist Thomas Allen Pauly is well known for his fine art paintings. Occasionally, Tom returns to his roots of painting realistic caricatures of racing’s elite (Thirty-three of Pauly’s portraits hang in the 3rd floor clubhouse collection at Arlington Park).

His very first drawing, produced in 6th grade, was a cartoon of President Nixon, which he copied from Mad Magazine’s legendary illustrator Mort Drucker. To this day Tom honors Drucker with every painting and drawing by placing 3 dots at the end of his signature, just like his Mad Magazine idol does.

The watercolor, “Harvey & Nancy Vanier”, depicted on the cover of this issue of MWT, was painted for the Vanier’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. The couple are longtime Pauly clients, and, in fact, they have his very first “oil” painting, that of their champion, Western Playboy.

Visit the website of Tom Allen Pauly, www.horseartist.com.