Hall of Fame

Norman Chris Boring was born on June 17, 1941, His father moved his family from Indiana to Michigan when Chris was 7 years old. Chris won his first harness race when he was 16, and by the time he was 18 he had taken over the training of his father’s stable. In 1962 he left Michigan to race at Sportsman’s Park in Chicago. In addition to his family’s horses, Boring also began to pick up catch-drives in the days long before the catch-driver era, and that led to Grand Circuit drives.

Boring first came to prominence driving pacer True Duane, a winner of more than $360,000 over 50 years ago. True Duane p,3,1:56.4 ($366,050) is best known for defeating older stars Cardigan Bay and also Bret Hanover while a sophomore in the American Pacing Classic at Hollywood Park in 1966, shaving two full seconds off the world record for 1 1/8 miles with a 2:09 1/5 performance.

One of Boring’s most successful trainees was Shiaway Lad p,2,1:59 ($274,112), who scored a pair of 1:59 victories in a two-heat Grand Circuit stake at The Red Mile in 1968, the fastest miles by a two-year-old pacer that year. He had a slew of other stakes champions, including Dancing Flower 3,2:06.1f ($48,287), Knight Worthy p,3,1:59.2 ($23,994), Dancing Knox p,5,1:57 ($216,648), Chris’s Colt 5,1:59.1 ($239,005) and Super Flower 2,T2:00 ($98,194), who won the third-ever Merrie Anabelle Two-Year-Old Filly Trot in 1979 at the Meadowlands.

In 1984 Boring again hit the national spotlight when he trained and drove the three-year-old colt Colt Fortysix p,3,1:50.3 ($232,538) to a 1:50.3 victory at Springfield, Illinois, the fastest mile ever at the time. A month later he drove Colt Fortysix to a straight-heats victory in the Little Brown Jug at Delaware, Ohio. Three years after that he scored world-record victories with Albert Albert p,3,1:52.1 ($1,237,070), another three-year-old colt he trained.

In addition to stakes horses of his own, Boring picked up many catch-drives behind Grand Circuit horses. In 1993 Boring drove Shady Daisy p,3,1:51 ($1,807,755), the three-time Older Pacing Mare of the Year, to a victory in the Suburban Downs Pacing Derby at Hawthorne Race Course.

He also drove many horses for trainer Chuck Sylvester, including the great trotter Pine Chip 4,T1:51 ($1,710,858), who he drove occasionally as a three-year-old. Boring made his one and only trip overseas when he directed Pine Chip in the 1994 Elitlopp in Sweden, with the colt winning his elimination and then making an ill-timed late break in the final.

Chris Boring won races in seven different decades and for many years held a place in the top 20 on the all-time drivers’ win list. He won driving titles at Hazel Park and Wolverine Raceway in Michigan, as well as Sportsman’s Park and Washington Park in Illinois, and he is a member of the Michigan Harness Racing Hall of Fame (1991) and the inaugural class of the Hazel Park Hall of Fame. The United States Trotting Association credits Boring with nearly 4,000 wins as a driver and just under $20 million in purse earnings.

In February 2014 Boring suffered a stroke, which led to his retirement as a driver and reduced his stable to less than a handful. He and his wife Joyce had six children through the years, including Troy, Mike, Teresa, Melissa, and twins Amanda and Angela.