By Neil Milbert Tribune staff reporter     Dave Magee never has been asked to sing the national anthem at a Cubs game, and they don’t talk about him on sports-talk radio even though he long has been a Chicago staple and he doesn’t have an off-season.     For the 51-year-old Hall of Fame harness driver, it has been that way for more than 25 years. Unfortunately for Magee, his rise to stardom, locally and nationally, coincided with a decline in interest in what was one of the most popular sports in Chicago and New York from the 1940s through the ‘70s.     Magee was selected North America’s Driver of the Year in 1994 when his 630 victories also made him No. 1 statistically. The next year, representing the United States and competing against top drivers from overseas, he won the biennial World Driving Championship.     In the eighth race at Balmoral Park on May 22, Magee became the sixth driver in harness racing history to reach the 10,000 victory milestone.     Maywood Park President Duke Johnston honored Magee’s 32-year career Thursday with Dave Magee Night.     Fittingly, with a record 12 championships, Magee is the most successful driver in the 49-year history of Maywood, the state’s first parimutuel harness track. His resume also includes 11 championships at now-defunct Sportsman’s Park

and titles at Balmoral and Hawthorne Race Course.     “There’s no doubt in my mind Dave would have been a good driver at any track in the world,” said Bob McIntosh, a Hall of Fame trainer whose stable is based in Canada. “He chose to stay in Chicago because he’s a family man.”     Over the years McIntosh has sent many of his champion pacers and trotters to compete in the American-National classic harness races, which were transplanted to Balmoral after Sportsman’s terminated its elite summer meeting.     “I started to ship for overnight races back in the 1980s,” McIntosh said. “I knew Dave by reputation and started using him. He’s good in big-money situations. He never panics. I’ve always thought he gets more out of a horse without using a whip than anybody I’ve ever seen. He’s a guy who can just hand-drive horses and they really respond to him.”     Growing up on a dairy farm outside the little town of Pulaski, Wis., Magee was introduced to harness racing as a child by his grandfather, Hugh.     “I spent my summers at my grandfather’s farm near Shawano (Wis.),” Magee said. “We trained at the county fairgrounds track and every weekend we’d be off somewhere to race at a fair. There were no parimutuel racetracks (in Wisconsin). People were in it strictly for the love of the sport.”

The possibility of making a living driving harness horses didn’t dawn on Magee. He was thinking about becoming a farmer. But after he graduated from high school in 1971 his uncle, trainer Elwood Magee, needed help in caring for 15 standardbreds racing at now-defunct Washington Park in south suburban Homewood.     “I decided as long as I’m going to be around horses I might as well get a (harness driver) qualifying license so I can be a big wheel at the fairs in the summer,” Magee said. “Then, I had the opportunity to lease a few horses so I took those to Quad City Downs to train.”     Magee won his first parimutuel drive at now-defunct Quad City Downs in 1972 and ended the year with two triumphs in 21 starts, purse earnings of $704 and no clue that this was the start of something big.     “I was training claiming horses and picking up drives here and there,” he said. “I was doing it for lack of any other direction in my life. Keith Smith was a good friend of mine and we’d traveled to county fairs in Wisconsin. After Quad City Downs closed we’d go wherever we felt like going-Cahokia Downs and Fairmount Park (in Illinois), Louisville Downs, Colonial Downs in Colorado.     “I worked up to training a decent stable of horses that I thought were good enough for Chicago in the fall. I wasn’t looking to

become a catch-driver (employed by trainers to compete in races). I was just hoping to build my stable and make good money with my own horses. I only had about 12 horses, but they were always very competitive.”     One of them was Mi T Model, a wisp of a filly born and raised in Magee’s backyard in Plainfield, where he then resided. In her second lifetime start in 1982, she won the Orange and Blue 2-year-old filly pace, a prestigious race for Illinois-breds.     But Magee’s training feats were fast becoming overshadowed by his accomplishments in the sulky.     “Catch-driving was becoming more prevalent,” he said. “Joe Marsh had left for New York and Carmen Alesi was gone, and those were the leading guys. People were looking for someone to fill in the spots, and I was available. Eventually, it was getting really hard to concentrate on training. I had to decide if I’d go the training route or the driving route. I chose driving.     “When leading trainers from out of town like Bob McIntosh and Ron Gurfein came in for races like the American-Nationals I would get the call on their top horses, which gave me national recognition.     “Early in my career I went out to the Meadowlands (the New Jersey track that has America’s premier harness meeting) for a couple of weeks. I liked