by Jeff Lowe

Neil Boyce, a top Chicago trainer in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, died on March 8 in Salem, Oregon. He was 83.

Boyce trained more than 25 stakes winners in a career that began in 1947 at Portland Meadows. During a long stint in Northern California, Boyce oversaw Diamond Lou, the first horse to win the Bay Meadows and Tanforan Handicaps in the same year.

Boyce moved to Chicago in 1974 and developed one of the circuit’s deepest stables. In the mid- to late-1980s, Boyce collected 12 stakes victories with Calestoga, eight with Josette, and six with Valid Vixen. Boyce and his wife, Michele, owned Valid Vixen, who scored her biggest win in the 1989 Sixty Sails Handicap (G3).

Michele Boyce bred Valid Vixen and Farma Way, the runner-up in 1989 Hollywood Futurity (G1) for her husband and later a multiple Grade 1 winner for D. Wayne Lukas.

Attivo registered Boyce’s last stakes victory in the 1994 Illinois Breeders’ Futurity. He trained until 1999.

A native of Hagerman, Idaho, Boyce was a jockey for several years at Midwest tracks before he went into the Army during World War II. He received several citations as a military policeman in Okinawa and Korea.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer