Hall of Fame

Robert “Bob” Joseph Key was born on July 27, 1933 in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. In 1939 his father Robert moved the family to New Kensington, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where the younger Key grew up with horses on the family farm.

Key received a bachelor’s degree in 1955 from Dickinson College. He continued his education at Dickinson, graduating summa cum laude in 1957 with a Juris Doctor degree. He then returned to New Kensington to open a general law practice.

For nearly a decade Key worked strictly as a lawyer, until he also became partner in a company that manufactured industrial springs called Belleville. He soon became the sole owner, pulling double duty operating both a law practice and the manufacturing company. Relocating the business to his home area, operating under the name Key Bellevilles, it became the largest manufacturer of disc springs in North America.

Key's introduction to harness racing was through his friend, Dr. Nick Oweida, who shared his love for horse racing during a lunch meeting. Oweida owned several horses racing at The Meadows the previous year and also mentioned that his daughter had recently met Hall of Famer Billy Haughton. Although Key knew little about harness racing at the time, Oweida’s enthusiasm and his stories about Haughton drew Key into the sport.

Soon Key found himself the proud one-third owner of three horses. He and Oweida broke even with the three, inspiring Key to spend over $100,000 on yearlings the following season. Key and Oweida took a liking to sire Tyler B, which led them to buy a two-year-old filly of his named Amneris, who would win a Breeders Crown in 1984, the inaugural year of the event. Amneris went on to be one of harness racing’s top fillies, setting a variety of track records and earning $974,141.

Key showed an early interest in the breeding end of the business and his initial success was to come with fillies. With Dr. John Glesmann, Key purchased half of future Hall of Famer Speedy Somolli’s yearling filly BJ’s Pleasure. With only modest success on the racetrack due to a knee injury at two, BJ’s Pleasure – another future Hall of Famer – was chosen by Key to be his first broodmare.

In 1993, BJ’s Pleasure’s third foal, American Winner, won two legs of the trotting Triple Crown – the Yonkers Trot and the Hambletonian. Key-owned Hi Noon Star finished third in that same Hambo. Key became the first owner to win both eliminations and the final. American Winner and Hi Noon Star were both trained by Milton Smith, the first African-American to win the Hambletonian.

American Winner later achieved recognition as a sire, particularly of broodmares. His daughter Yankee Blondie produced 2009 Horse of the Year and Hall of Fame trotter Muscle Hill. Other American Winner daughters produced world champion Dan Patch Award winners Sand Vic and Maven, O’Brien Award winners Define The World and Classic Photo, and millionaires including Key-campaigned Breeders Crown champion Break The Bank K and Grand Circuit star Win Missy B.

Key’s stable ranked in the top 20 in earnings every year from 2010 through 2019. It exceeded $3 million in purses three times during that span and topped $2 million in each of the remaining seven years.

Bob Key died on Jan. 27, 2021 at the age of 87. Both he and American Winner entered the Harness Racing Hall of Immortals in 2025.