from the USTA Communications Department

Columbus, OH — Joe Foley, 72, died peacefully in a nursing home the week before Christmas after several months of suffering from dementia.

He started in the business working as a groom in Montreal at the old Blue Bonnets in 1960, working for veteran top trotting horseman Percy Robillard. He became a trainer in Percy’s stable, before going out on his own as a driver/trainer in the late 1960s. He had a small stable which started at Blue Bonnets before racing successfully at Windsor in the Joe DeFrank days. He moved his stable to the Meadowlands in the mid 1970s.

One of his career highlights came in the late 1970s when he cared for and trained the great trotter Glencoe Pride, who Percy had sent to the Meadowlands. Glencoe Pride dominated the Open Trot class, winning six in a row, with John Campbell doing the driving.

Mr. Foley trained horses until the late 1990s and then worked with the track maintenance crew at the Meadowlands until dementia began to set in six years ago.

He is survived by his wife, Linda, who lives in New Jersey; and eight brothers and sisters who live in Canada.

A private service was held soon after his passing, and his Canadian family will be holding a memorial service in his memory in the spring.