Bruce Nickells

Bruce Nickells (born July 5, 1928 in Illinois) is an American harness racing driver and trainer. Nickells was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame on July 4, 2016.

Nickells, who grew up in Princeton, Illinois, began working with harness racing horses as a groom when he was 13 years old. Eight years later, his first start as a harness racing driver, in 1949, when he was 21 years old, was driving a horse named Great Dune at Aurora Downs. Nickells worked two years as a second trainer for Del Cameron before opening his own stable in 1953.

Bruce Nickells became known as a specialist in training young fillies as Pacers and is considered one of the best trainers of fillies in harness racing history.

In 1964, Nickells drove Combat Time to victory in the second division of the Little Brown Jug at the County Fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio before finishing second in the third and final division to Jug winner Vicar Hanover.

At the 1972 Little Brown Jug, Bruce Nickells drove Fast Clip to a second place finish, one and one fourth lengths behind the winner Strike Out. Strike Out, who had been trained by Nickells for two months the previous winter, won the Jug with a time of 1:56.3 which set a world record for a three-year-old pacer on a half mile track. He also won the 1989 Hambletonian Oaks with Park Avenue Kathy, and drove six horses to Breeders Crown championships.

In 1990, Nickells along with Gene Riegle, were awarded the Glen Garnsey Trophy as the U.S. Trainer of the Year. Although the NTRA did not track statistics early in Nickells' career, he earned at least $6 million in prize money as a driver and more than $7 million as a trainer.